Dear Hearts and Gentle People
by AcidGummiBear
Summary: My Sole Survivor Lilith's journey to find her son in the Commonwealth. Relies heavily on in-game dialogue when appropriate. Tried to follow canon as close as possible, but this is mostly me documenting how she deals with different situations and a developing relationship with John Hancock. Yes I am riding that ghoul train, choo choooo. Story Spoilers!
1. Chapter 1

**Hiii everybody. I have been riding this Fallout train hard, and Hancock is my favorite ghoulfriend. I bought the book The Art of Fallout 4 (which I highly recommend), and seeing the FAR more interesting options for hair styles they were toying with in their design sketches gave me my first idea about how I really wanted my character to be. I tried to make it somewhat realistic. But some of it is also going to be shameless flirting and fluff with Hancock bc he is the dopest ghoul in the Commonwealth.**

 **Please enjoy!**

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It had been 6 months since Lilith had left Vault 111. 6 months since she had crawled, terrified, off of the huge vault service elevator and out into the wasteland of the former state of Massachusetts. Her long, formerly gorgeous dark cherry-brown hair had become matted from repeatedly bathing in the ocean and sleeping in the dirt. It had begun to form knotted dreadlocks some months before, and she had just sort of…let them be. Once she had established Sanctuary as a proper settlement with the help of the Minutemen, she had finally been able to rest for a few minutes at a time and look in a mirror. She had started rolling the knots over and over in her hands when she wasn't busy helping somebody; pulling scavenged steel nuts up onto some of the smaller dreads to add some weight to them. She liked them. They were dirty, and smelled a little funny, and got stuck in her armpits sometimes, but they were a part of her now; as much a part of her as the long thin scar that streaked over her left eye, down over the top of her left cheek, and came to an abrupt halt at her lips; as much as the black charcoal she would smudge in circles around her eyes as a form of camouflage – and intimidation.

She stood now looking at these things in a dirty mirror in her little shack in Sanctuary. She had not been able to bear the thought of moving back into her old, dilapidated house down the street. _Their_ old dilapidated house. The thought of Nate still pained her almost constantly, but especially at night. Lilith had always been tough, and, she marveled at how much tougher now, after all the things she had seen…and all the things she had killed. But the nightmares and sleep paralysis had haunted her and sometimes terrified her since she had finally been released from cryostasis.

She had crawled up from the vault like the proverbial phoenix rising from the ashes, wandered to Concord with the help of Codsworth and Dogmeat, and discovered her first group of lost settlers being led by Preston Garvey. They had thrown a gun at her, and she had had to mow down a bunch of thugs in black leather and horrifying cage suits that wanted her dead for no reason she could fathom. They had shoved her into a suit of power armor to gain an advantage over the raiders, and she had ended up fighting a Deathclaw that had been nesting in the city sewers; the aforementioned scars being the result of that pants-peeing encounter. But through it all, she had lived. The fight with the Deathclaw had left her unconscious and bleeding badly. If not for Preston and his band of other lost souls carrying her back to Sanctuary and tending to her wounds, she most likely would have died there in the old streets of Concord.

She had hated them for a brief period. There she was, practically a newborn in this painful world, being forced into committing atrocities she had never even dreamed of, because they just needed a little "help". But Preston, Sturges and the rest had taken _such_ good care of her after, had explained things to her and answered all of her questions as best they could. In turn she had told them about what she remembered in the vault, those terrible people prying her young son Shaun out of Nate's arms, and shooting him down like a dog. Preston had suggested she head to Diamond City to look for help in finding her son, and she had gone. Lilith had met Piper Wright and Nick Valentine, among a host of others, who had offered to aid her in her search. In fact, Valentine was waiting for her outside now. They were supposed to make their way to a town called Goodneighbor, just northeast of Diamond City in the old financial district.

Lilith was closer than ever to finding her son. With Valentine's help she had discovered the identity of the man who had shot her husband in cold blood, and had finally taken her revenge in a brutal firefight. Valentine had been by her side the entire time, and, she thought, there was no way she could ever repay him for his diligence and kindness as a friend. With the occurrence of this thought, she grabbed an old knapsack full of supplies, slung it over her shoulder and headed towards the door of her shack. Just before exiting she grabbed the power fist – her favorite weapon – off the small table by the door.

Nick looked up as Lilith left her little house and locked the door behind her. "You finally ready to hit the road?"

"Yeah," she replied. "Sorry it took a little bit. Just needed to gear up for another long trip." She gave him a weary smile.

The synth detective nodded, flicking a smoldering cigarette off to his side and falling into step beside her as they made their way out of the little settlement. "If we bring Kellogg's brain implant to Dr. Amari at the Memory Den, we'll hopefully be able to learn the location of your son, Lil."

"I hope you're right, Nick. Listen…" She glanced at him as she pulled on the power fist and adjusted the grip in her right hand, flexing the trigger once or twice. "I wanted to say thanks for sticking with me for a while. I haven't met anyone else out here that could have helped me get as far as you have. It means a lot."

He tipped his hat at her in classic noir fashion. "Don't thank me until we've found your boy."


	2. Chapter 2

A few days later and a couple miles behind their belts, Lilith and Valentine stood at the gates of Goodneighbor.

"So this is it, huh?"

"Goodneighbor…the lowest place in the Commonwealth. Everything not nailed down rolls through here at some point."

She threw him a sideways glance and opened the door. Immediately upon entering the town, they were approached by a skinhead in worn road leathers.

" Well well, it's the detective. Tracking down another wayward husband to his mistress?"

Nick replied in kind. "Why, someone stand you up?"

The man sneered. "Are you tryin' that, what d'ya call it? Evasive language, on me?" He aimed his bloodshot gaze at Lilith, looking her up and down. "And who are you, huh? Valentine's new dick-in-training?"

Lilith scowled at the man. Who the hell was this clown? "Yeah actually. We're hiring, but I don't think you'd…measure up."

"Don't be like that. You just got the look of someone who's in the market for a little insurance."

"Unless it's 'keep-dumb-assholes-away-from-me' insurance, I'm not interested."

Nick couldn't help but smirk. Lil had minimal patience for assholes and a wealth of sarcasm in her arsenal. Sometimes she could be downright tactless, but in this scenario it seemed well deserved.

"Now don't be like that. I think you're going to like what I have on offer. You hand over everything you got in them pockets, or 'accidents' start happenin' to ya. _Big, bloody, 'accidents'_."

Lilith was about to rear back with her power fist primed when another voice emanated out from the shadow of a large building just down the street. "Whoa, whoa. Time out."

Lilith stopped short in her swing as a lithe figure sauntered into view, decked out in a bright red frock coat and a tricorn hat. Was everyone in this town crazy? "Nick Valentine makes a rare visit to town, and you're hassling his friend here with that extortion crap?"

The urge to knock this guy's head off was almost overpowering, but Lilith steadied her fist and lowered it slowly. At that moment she realized the colonial figure walking toward them was a ghoul. A ghoul who could _talk_ and who wasn't furiously chasing her and trying to scratch her eyes out.

Road leathers turned towards the ghoul. "What d'you care? She ain't one of us."

The ghoul squared himself in front of the skinhead. "What, no love for your mayor, Finn? I said let 'em go."

"You're soft, Hancock. You keep letting outsiders walk all over us, one day there'll be a new mayor."

 _Mayor?_ This just kept getting more interesting. Lilith looked from one man to the other.

"Come on, man. This is me we're talking about. Let me tell you something."

Hancock extended an arm to Finn as if to make a grand show of amends, and a split second later he had pulled a knife from behind his back and was stabbing Finn over and over again in the stomach. Finn slumped, and Hancock pushed his limp body to the ground, making sure to take a step back so he wouldn't get the man's blood on his boots. "Now why'd you have to go and say that, huh? Breaking my heart over here." He finally turned his dark eyes toward Lilith. "You all right, sister?"

"Yeah, thanks for taking care of him." She couldn't help it. "You. You're a ghoul?"

He smirked. His eyes looked like pools of india ink. "That's right. Like my face? I think it gives me a sexy, king of the zombies kinda look. Big hit with the ladies." He shot her a wink, but then he became serious again. "Listen, lot of walking rad freaks like me around here, so you might wanna keep those kinds of questions on the low burner next time. Goodneighbor's of the people, for the people, you feel me? Everyone's welcome."

Lilith nodded, feeling regret at asking about something so blatantly obvious. Of course he was a ghoul…just not a feral one. "Yeah. I feel you."

"Good. You stay cool, and you'll be a part of the neighborhood. So long as you remember who's in charge. Now, what can I do ya for?" Hancock eyed the girl up and down. If he didn't know any better, and if she hadn't been with Nick Valentine, he would have taken her for a raider. He had to admit, she looked like a fierce one. Even though she seemed a bit tactless, he liked her.

Nick finally stepped forward, lighting a cigarette with an ancient zippo lighter. "Got business with Amari over at the Memory Den. If you don't mind, we shouldn't keep her waiting."

Hancock raised what would have been an eyebrow and nodded, stepping aside and cocking his arm in a friendly gesture to let them pass deeper into the town. "Drop by the state house later if you feel like catchin' up, Valentine. S'been a while."

Nick nodded and placed a hand gently on Lilith's back, guiding her down the small main street of Goodneighbor. Lil glanced back at Hancock briefly as they walked away and caught him looking back. She threw him a small wave before they rounded the corner.

Hancock folded his arms and bit what was left of his lower lip. "Tch…she wants me."


	3. Chapter 3

The procedure at the Memory Den was the farthest thing from what Lilith had expected. It had required both her and Nick to be inserted into Kellogg's memories and it had been very, very painful. Besides viewing a slideshow of the man's insanely depressing life, she had had to watch his memory of breaking into Vault 111 to take her baby. She had to watch Nate being shot again. When she was finally released from the viewing pod, she thought she was going to throw up. Dr. Amari helped steady her, asking if she was all right. Lilith's head was swimming, but she managed a nod and a thank you.

The doctor looked at her with concern. "Are you…ready to talk about what happened in there?"

The last thing she wanted to talk about was any of that. One glaring outlier in Kellogg's memories flickered into her mind and she latched onto it quickly. "There's more than one person who knows about the Institute. Virgil, that scientist who escaped…"

"I didn't know Institute scientists could defect. This changes everything. He could answer all sorts of questions. Where did the memory say he was? The Glowing Sea? That can't be right. No one would risk going there. Not even to hide."

"Of course, that's why he's there! To make the Institute think twice about following him…"

Amari caught on to her chain of thought swiftly. "That must be it! He's using the radiation in the Glowing Sea like a shield or a…cloak…a way to throw them off and be at an advantage. If Virgil found a way to survive there, you'll have to do the same, if you're going to follow him. You'd need as much Rad-X and RadAway as you could carry. Maybe more. A sealed environment suit would be great, if you could find one. Or maybe…one of those suits of Power Armor? That would be perfect."

Lilith nodded, running off a checklist in her mind of the doctor's suggestions. She still had the suit of T-45 Power Armor from Concord back at the garage in Sanctuary. In the meantime, she would need to find a way to make some fast caps to buy the extra chems she would need for the trip. She thanked the doctor briskly.

Amari hugged her then held her back at arm's length for a moment. "Good luck, and…be safe. Oh and by the way, I unplugged Mr. Valentine first. Removed the implant while you were waking up. He's waiting for you upstairs."

Lilith thanked her again and jogged up the stairs to go and meet Nick. As she approached him she called his name and was about to start regurgitating everything she had talked about with the doctor, when a chillingly familiar voice issued from Nick's mouth.

"Hope you got what you were looking for inside my head. Heh. I was right. Should've killed you when you were on ice."

Lilith froze in her tracks, and actually went to take a step back from him. "Wh-what did you say?"

Without even missing a beat Nick replied - in his normal voice this time - "What? What are you talking about?"

"You uh…you sounded like Kellogg just then."

"Did I? Amari said there might be some 'mnemonic impressions' left over…Anyway, I feel fine, so let's get going."

She put her hands up defensively as he stood up, backing away a few more steps. After everything that had just happened - the emotional torment of watching a replay of her husband's death, and just then hearing Kellogg's voice coming from her dear friend's mouth – the world was spinning around her again. "Nick, I…I think something's wrong with you. I-I think it…might be a risk to bring you with me right now…"

A look of actual hurt brushed across Nick's face. "Lil, are you sure? I don't think you should stay in Goodneighbor alone-"

"Yes Nick, I am very sure. I- Please, I just need to be by myself for a little while. I'll come find you in Diamond City when I'm ready, I promise. Please…"

He sighed and eventually gave her a nod. "All right, if that's really what you want. I know you can take care of yourself, but…look, Hancock puts on a lot of airs, I know, but if you need anything, you can go to him, OK? Against all evidence to the contrary, he is actually one of the good guys."

Lilith folded her arms across her chest and nodded, looking everywhere but into his eyes. And just like that, he was gone. She only looked up when she heard the door shut behind him. She was trembling, and she could feel tears stinging her eyes. She let out a shaky breath. She dawdled there for a few minutes pretending to check something on her Pip-boy, then left the old Scollay Square building when she thought Nick was probably far enough away.

Upon exiting the Memory Den, she was greeted with an immediate commotion outside the old colonial state house that stood as the town's centerpiece. Townspeople and neighborhood watchmen stood gathered around at ground level, while Hancock spoke to them from the balcony above.

"Now, what out there in our big, friendly Commonwealth would want to drive us apart? What kind of twisted, un-neighborly boogeyman would want to hurt our peaceful community?"

A voice rang from the crowd. "The Institute and their synths!"

"That's right! Who said that? Come on up to my office later. You've earned yourself some Jet. The Institute! They're the real enemy! Not the Raiders, not the Super Mutants, not even those tools over in Diamond City."

Lilith curled her arms around herself a little tighter, chewing her bottom lip as she gingerly walked over to the edge of the crowd. Although she was exhausted and anxiety-ridden, she couldn't help being curious about whether Hancock might shed some light on what little she knew of the Institute.

A neighborhood watchman yelled out. "I don't know, Hancock! I'd sure love to give McDonough a kick in the ass!"

There was general laughter from the crowd, and a few solid whoops of approval until Hancock spoke up again. "Hey, we all know I got my own personal beef with that lard-head, but stay focused! Now, I want everyone to keep the Institute in mind. When someone starts acting funny. When people are doing things they don't normally do. When family starts pushing you away for no reason. We all know who's behind that kind of shit. And the only way to stop it is to stick together. They can't control us if we're not afraid! Now who's scared of the Institute?"

In unison, the crowd bellowed. "Not us!"

"And which town in the Commonwealth should the Institute not fuck with!?"

Even louder from the crowd, "Goodneighbor!"

"And who's in charge of Goodneighbor?"

"Hancock! Of the people, for the people!"

Hancock laughed and clapped his hands a couple times in approval, and just like that the crowd was dispersing. Lilith looked around as the neighborhood watch returned to their posts, then glanced up at the balcony. Again, she caught Hancock looking back at her. He smirked, winked and made a gun shape with his hand that he flirtatiously "shot" at her. She looked away, toward what looked like an old subway entrance under the state house. A dirty sign above it read "The Third Rail." She addressed the neighborhood watchman stationed at the entrance. "This a bar?"

"Best damn bar in the Commonwealth, sister."


	4. Chapter 4

It was early evening and the bar was reasonably packed with drifters and town residents, ghoul and human alike. A Mr. Handy hovered behind the bar, a perky bowler hat perched atop his dome.

"Oi. We got beer. And if you ain't buyin' beer, you ain't buyin."

Lilith removed her knapsack and slumped down onto a barstool. "Beer it is then…and keep 'em coming. Please."

The Mr. Handy wiped the bar in front of her with a dirty rag in one clawed arm and then plopped a Gwinnet Lager down in front of her. "Name's Whitechapel Charlie - if ya need anythin' else."

There was a woman in the corner of the bar up on a small stage, actually singing. Lilith had never seen an entertainer in the Commonwealth. She watched the woman for some time, and she never noticed that the shaking of her hands was subsiding with the number of beers she drank. When the woman took a break, Charlie put the radio on. Skeeter Davis was singing "The End of the World." As Lilith listened to the song, a deep ache began to grow in her chest. All it did was remind her of Nate. Of all that had happened, of all that she had lost – which was literally everything. Her hand clenched around the bottle it held and she bit her lip to try and stop herself from crying.

"Hey there, sister. Where's your Valentine?"

Lilith whipped her head at the sudden intrusion. It was the swaggering mayor, Hancock. He plopped himself onto a seat beside her and was about to say something else when he noticed her eyes were wet. "Eh, hope I'm…not intruding on anything?"

She sniffed and smashed the heel of a hand against her cheek to smudge the tears away. "No…no, it's fine. I'm just dealing with some shit right now. And…Valentine's gone."

Hancock motioned to Charlie for a drink and turned back to her. "Yeah? The old dick left you all alone in big bad Goodneighbor?" He smirked at his own wit as a stout and a snifter of whiskey were placed in front of him. He downed the whiskey in one shot, smacking the glass back down on the bar.

Lilith watched him with an eyebrow raised. Dryly, she said, "He did indeed. Funny…I thought beer was all they had."

Hancock took a swig of his beer. "Nah. Anyways, I own the place, and Charlie knows what I like. So. I gotta admit doll, you've got me at a disadvantage. You know my name. I don't know yours."

"Lilith. A lot of people call me Lil. Or General…" She rolled her eyes as she said the latter.

Hancock was intrigued. Lilith. "General?"

She sighed and finished off her current bottle. "Uh yeah. It's a long story. Basically I've been helping the Minutemen, just helping out settlers really, but their 'last surviving member' named me General." She wiggled her fingers in sarcastic emphasis as she mentioned Preston. She liked him well enough, but he had no shortage of tasks to send her off on and it had been a major distraction from her search for Shaun. It got on her nerves when she let it. But then she remembered there were so many people who needed help in this world, and it became so hard to focus solely on her own problems. She shook her head and grabbed the fresh beer that Charlie placed in front of her.

"Wow…that's actually a pretty big deal, toots. I've heard rumblings, but I still thought the Minutemen were gone for good. I'll tell ya, you look more like a freakin' raider psycho than the General of a civilian's army. No offense."

She chuckled dryly. "You don't exactly look like a mayor either, tough guy. It helps in certain situations to look this way. But…yeah, I don't really feel like a General. I…psh, I don't even know why I'm telling you all this…" She lowered her head and ran her hands over her hair.

"Well I am impossibly charming and absurdly good looking, so you never stood much of a chance." He downed the rest of his beer and set it at the end of the bar. "Hey, you wanna get out of here? I'm in the mood for somethin' with a little more kick than the swill Charlie's servin' up down here."

She finished her beer in suit and considered his offer. She was hesitant, but she recalled Nick's last words to her earlier. "Alright Hancock…since you seem like one of the good guys."

He flashed her a ghoulish grin and stood, offering her his hand. She dropped a pile of caps on the bar for Charlie and accepted his hand up. It wasn't as rough as she had expected it to be. In all honesty, she was surprised he was so friendly. He seemed to be on a first name basis with almost everyone in town, and his cocky but good-natured demeanor blew that asshole mayor of Diamond City out of the water.

They left the Third Rail and rounded the corner of the building. Hancock waved good night to the watchman posted outside the State House then opened the door and paused to let her step in first. They climbed a tall spiral staircase up to the top floor, where Hancock's private quarters were located. On their way up, a thought occurred to him. "Ya know, it strikes me as a little odd, you asking me about being a ghoul. Were you just trying to yank my chain earlier?" He pushed open the door to his rooms.

"Um…well I've encountered plenty of feral ghouls. Goodneighbor's the first place I've ever seen anyone like you."

He motioned for her to take a seat on a ratty couch in the middle of the room while he walked over and retrieved a bottle of whiskey and two glasses. "For real? What, are you from a vault or somethin'?"

She sighed, taking the glass he offered her. She took a sip, cringed, and leaned back into the couch. "For all intents and purposes. I was an experiment. Locked in a cryo tube for 200 years…I don't know how, but I was thawed out about 6 months ago."

Hancock had produced a Jet inhaler and was mid-inhale when he sputtered and coughed. "200 years!? You're telling me you're an _original_ vault dweller? Shit…"

She took another sip of the whiskey and felt her face flush. The booze was really hitting her now. "Listen, I don't wanna talk about that stuff right now. What's _your_ story, Hancock?"

He relaxed onto the couch beside her, letting the Jet do its job. "Hm…my favorite subject…I came into this town about…a decade ago? Had a smooth set of skin back then."

She raised her eyebrows. She couldn't help wondering what he had looked like as a human. He was still good-looking as a ghoul, she thought. In a weird, Night of the Living Dead sort of way.

"While I was busy making myself a pillar of this community, I would go on these…like…wild tears. I was young…any chems I could find, the more exotic, the better. Finally found this experimental radiation drug. Only one of its kind left, and only one hit." He closed his eyes, swirling the glass of whiskey in his hand. "Oh man, the high was so worth it. Yeah, I'm living with the side effects, but hey…" He opened his eyes and looked over at her. "What's not to love about immortality?"

"You're immortal?"

"Well, not exactly. Ghouls just age really, really slow. Somethin' about the rads, maybe? Who knows..." He took another puff of the Jet and then offered it to her.

"What exactly does this stuff do?" She blushed slightly – all of a sudden she felt like a teenager being offered a hit at a high school party.

"Its intended use was on the battlefield – it gives you the impression that time is slowing down; eases your nerves, steadies your hands, relaxes your body." He smiled. "Hell of a recreational drug. I'm usually a Mentats ghoul myself, but this stuff is a very close second."

She took the Jet inhaler from him, looking it over, then put it to her lips and depressed the plunger. The chemicals burned her lungs, but after a few moments she felt the sensation blossoming out from her chest. She couldn't help but exclaim through her brief coughing fit. "Whoa…"

She relaxed deep into the threadbare couch and swung her boots up onto the coffee table in front of them. Hancock watched her. He still got a thrill from seeing a newbie get stoned for the first time, and he could tell she was digging it.

She took a languorous sip from her whiskey, no longer cringing at the taste but enjoying the burn in her belly and the clarity she saw in everything around her.

"So whaddaya think doll? Good stuff, huh?" His eyes glinted at her in the dim light of the large room. She thought they looked like shark's eyes for a moment.

"Great stuff. I can see why people get addicted to this shit."

Hancock laughed, nodding his head and draining his glass. A few moments of silence passed as he refilled it and topped hers off as well. "So, what was it like? Ya know, before the world went to shit."

Lilith rolled her head in his direction, still sunken into the couch. This was the best she had felt since entering the Commonwealth. High as fuck, hanging out with a costumed freak. She smiled to herself bitterly. The truth was she was more of a freak in this place than he was. He was right at home in the death and grime of this place, and he seemed happy.

She shrugged her shoulders and sighed. "It was… _going_ to shit. I mean we could at least put on the pretense that we were happy and somewhat prosperous, but we all knew – America, I mean, the general populace – that something was coming. Terrorist attacks always on the news, mercenary and black ops assassinations behind the scenes, tensions high between the major world powers. It was only a matter of time before somebody pressed the button. And all we could do was hide behind our little white picket fences and pretend to be optimistic and make small talk with each other about the weather." She took another, longer sip from her glass. "I was married," she flashed him the ring she still wore on her hand, "and we had just had a baby."

Hancock stared at her. Of course, he had met pre-war ghouls who had told him stories. Hell, Daisy over at the general store was one of his closest friends. But she had never told him anything like that. "I'm uh…I'm sorry."

She shook her head, waving a dismissal at him. Things were clear to her for the moment, and the high she felt seemed to block up the aching hole in her chest. "Nate – my husband – is dead. But my son…he might still be alive. We were in the vault together, and he was kidnapped. By the Institute, I think…"

Hancock wiped his mouth with his hand then drained his second glass of whiskey. "Shit, Lil…look I don't wanna be a Debbie Downer here, but the Institute? I don't know much about 'em, but what I do know…it ain't good."

She nodded, draining her own glass and setting it down on the table. "So I've heard. But I can't stop looking for him, Hancock…Shaun is everything I have left in this world. I need to find him. Even if I have to fight my way through the entire Institute and all their fucking synths to do it…can I have some more of that Jet?"

He handed the inhaler back to her. "You know nobody knows where the place is, right? I mean how are you gonna storm the castle when the damn place is like magic? They keep sendin' spooks out but nobody can get in."

"I don't know…but there must be a way. I – I have one lead. To the Glowing Sea…"

Hancock couldn't help but laugh. "Geeze babe, you must really have a death wish. I'd love to take a little vacation there, but I don't think it would suit your complexion."

"I have to go there. I just need the caps for the chems, and…and I need more training in combat. I mean I wasn't exactly a trained killer before the war. Christ, I was a fucking lawyer."

Hancock sighed, not really knowing what else to do. He stood up and walked over to the bar at the edge of the room to rummage for some Mentats. He spoke to her over his shoulder. "Look, I've got some jobs kickin' around that need doing. I know you're anxious to get on your kid's trail, and I can't help much with that, but I can give ya some work."

Lilith yawned suddenly, a real body-stretcher. "That'd be great. Thanks, Hancock. Ya know, you're a pretty cool ghoul…heh…"

He smirked as he finally found a full tin, popping a Mentat into his mouth and letting it sit on his tongue for a moment. "Ya know, you ain't so bad yourself-" He stopped short as he turned around. She was sleeping soundly, slumped into the corner of the couch. Her arms were folded across her chest, and her feet were still crossed on top of the coffee table. "Damn…"

Hancock strode back across the room, removing his coat as he went. He laid it gently on top of her and as he was about to retreat, he second guessed himself and went back to gingerly lift her feet and slide her around so she was resting more comfortably the long way on the couch.

"Mm, no Nate…" She grumbled a little bit, then rolled over onto her side and pulled the red frock coat up around her shoulders. Hancock sighed. Under the knotted hair and the dark makeup and the sassy attitude she was just as scared as anyone he had ever met in this life. And she had every right to be terrified. She was gearing up to take on the biggest, baddest boogeymen in the Commonwealth, and he wasn't sure, but he thought that she knew she was probably going to die trying to do it.

He turned and walked away toward his bedroom, pulling off the leather gun belt he wore across his chest and undoing the buttons on his frilled shirt.


	5. Chapter 5

The next morning Lilith was rudely awakened by a tall redhead with half her head shaved, pounding on Hancock's bedroom door. "Hancock, wake up! We got shit to do ya fuckin' lush!"

"Ugh…" Lilith sat up, holding her head.

Hancock's voice bellowed out from behind the door. "Keep your tits on Fahrenheit, I'm comin'! Fuck, a guy can't get a good night's sleep in this fuckin' town…"

"It's noon! Maybe if you didn't get fucked up all night with cheap sluts we wouldn't be having this conversation!"

Lilith blinked and covered her eyes from the harsh sunlight creeping in through the windows. "I'm not a cheap slut…"

The door burst open suddenly and Fahrenheit took a step back as Hancock strode out in a huff. He was positioning the tricorn hat atop his head but left it lopsided for a moment as he stopped at the bar to grab a couple Mentats. He shot a searing glance at the redhead as he took a swig from the previous night's whiskey bottle to wash them down.

"Kindly shut the fuck up, will ya? This nice lady" – he thrust a pointed finger toward the girl on the couch - "is going to work a couple jobs for us. The Pickman Gallery? Yeah, that one's been on the burner for a while now, huh? Well guess what sweet cheeks, she's gonna go take care of it. Alright!?"

Fahrenheit was about to yell something else at him but she stopped short. She glanced over at the pathetic heap of a girl on the couch. Fahrenheit couldn't help but sneer; she looked like hungover raider trash. Like, literally, trash that raiders threw out. She laughed. "You're serious?"

"As a Deathclaw attack. Now. I know there's shit that need's takin' care of, and we're gonna do it. But come on sister, it's the weekend. Let a guy take things at his leisure, yeah?"

Fahrenheit glanced at the girl on the couch one last time, then folded her arms across her chest and gave Hancock a small nod. "Fine. But we still need to figure out what we're gonna do with Sinjin…"

Hancock nodded, finally reaching up to readjust his hat. "We'll deal with it. Don't worry. Haven't steered ya wrong yet, have I?"

Fahrenheit grumbled. "No mayor. Not yet."

He smiled and ushered her toward the stairs. "Now if ya don't mind, I need to finish briefing our mercenary here on the job at hand."

By this time Lilith was sitting up on the couch, but her head was in her hands and her dreads were, well, everywhere. She spoke through the wall of hair, muffled slightly. "What's the Pickman Gallery?"

He walked over to her, lighting a cigarette. "Well, there's some weird talk coming in about it. It's raider territory up there, but they've been quiet. Like, uncomfortable post-coitus quiet. I just need you to snoop it out, and give me the word."

"Is there anything else you can tell me about it?"

"Nothing. That's why I'm payin' you to go out there. But be thorough, okay? I'm not paying for a look-see. I want you to find out what's really goin' on there."

Lilith rolled her eyes and looked up, swiping the mass of hair out of her face. She crumpled his jacket up in her hands and thrust it at him. "Scout out Pickman Gallery. I'm on it."

He took the jacket from her, scowling as he pulled it on. He walked back towards the bar. "I won't lie, it'll most likely be dangerous. You don't _have_ to take the job if you don't –"

"It's good. I said I'm on it." She stood, tying her dreads up in a makeshift ponytail. She grabbed her knapsack from the floor and yanked out the power fist.

He turned back from the bar and watched as she fitted the contraption over her right hand, adjusting it for a few moments. Once she looked up again, he tossed a fresh Jet inhaler to her. "Take this. If you're goin' now, it'll help with your hangover."

She caught the Jet in her left hand and stuck it into her pocket. "Thanks. See you in a couple days." And just like that she was gone.


	6. Chapter 6

It had been just over 48 hours when Lilith finally re-entered Goodneighbor. She was covered in grime and blood, and she definitely got some looks as she limped through the door. She headed to Daisy's general store first to trade in all the junk she had found for a few caps, then did the same over at K-L-E-O's with all the shitty guns she had looted. After scraping in a measly amount of currency, she headed inside the state house.

Hancock was there in his quarters with Fahrenheit, going over some local maps. When she walked in he immediately stood up and walked towards her. "Hey! How's my little scout doing? You find out what's happening at Pickman Gallery?"

She dropped her knapsack next to the door. "Let's just say Pickman's art isn't going to have much resale value once those bodies start decaying…he was kidnapping raiders and murdering them to make his 'masterpieces.' "

He shot her a smirk. He hoped he hadn't come off too concerned, but the truth of it was he had been thinking about it nonstop since he had sent her out there. He knew the girl had some sort of death wish, but at the same time he loathed the idea of sending her out on some foolhardy mission that was way out of her depth. "Heheh…well, they say all artistic inspiration is ephemeral, am I right? Wish I could say that was the most twisted thing I've ever heard of, but it ranks up there…top three…I'll put the word out. Tell people to stay clear of that area."

She nodded. "I let him live…he was only murdering raiders. Enemy of my enemy, ya know? He uh…he gave me this." She pulled a mean looking serrated combat knife from her knapsack. "I don't really have much use for it. Do you want it?" She had been thinking about the way he had killed Finn when she had first entered Goodneighbor. He had had no real reason to kill the man, other than asserting his own dominance. But that was what you had to do in this world. She thought he might truly appreciate the blade.

He smiled and took it from her, spinning it over his hand and between his fingers. He really was an aficionado. "Nice weight, good balance…" He nodded. "Hiring you was definitely one of my better moments. Here." He tucked Pickman's Blade behind his belt and went across the room to a floor safe. He knelt and dialed in the combination, opening the solid iron door and pulling out a good-sized bag. He carried it back over to her and dropped it into her hands. "200 caps. Plus I waived your tab with Charlie from the other night, so there's another fifty into the bargain. Spend it in good health."

Fahrenheit rolled her eyes in the background. She leaned forward and rolled up the map that sat on the coffee table and stood up to leave. "Can we finish this later, John?"

He turned to look at the woman as she walked up to them. "Yeah, we can definitely finish it later."

Lilith looked at the woman looking at her as she left the room. "Another pawn in our little game…welcome, little pawn." Fahrenheit held the gaze until she walked out of the room.

Lilith turned to Hancock, jerking her thumb after the woman. "What the fuck?"

He shrugged. "Fahrenheit's my second in command. She comes off a little crazy, but damn it, she's the best tactician I've ever seen. Obsessed with chess, if ya couldn't tell. Eh, don't mind her." He waved dismissively after the redhead and turned his attention back to Lilith. "Listen, it sounds like you've earned a couple days of shore leave, yeah? Why don't you stick around for a bit, stay here in Goodneighbor?"

She shrugged. "If there's more work. These caps'll get me some supplies, but I need to be _sure_ I'm not wandering out into the Glowing Sea just to die."

Hancock nodded. "Sure, sure. I feel ya. Listen, let me take care of some business here, and I might have something else for you soon."

Lilith left the state house with what felt like a heavier weight on her shoulders. She knew she should get back to Sanctuary to check in on Preston and see if he had work that needed doing, but she needed money. And Preston's errands were always volunteer work. She sighed and shoved her hands into the pockets of the cage armor she had recently acquired.

She wandered into a back alley, thinking it might bring her around in a circle to another part of the town, but it ended abruptly at a large iron door. Lilith was about to turn around when a latch on the door suddenly slid open. "Hey you. Lookin' for work?"

Lilith looked at the woman on the other side of the door. She was a ghoul. "Maybe…what kind of work?"

"It's good work. Under the supervision of the best boss you'll ever have. If you don't mind a little manual labor and don't ask too many questions, you're in. I'll give you 50 caps to start. Interested?"

Lilith shook her head and crossed her arms. "I'm gonna need more to go on here…"

The ghoul grumbled from behind the door. "There's a project I'm working on, a big one. One that could get me in lots of trouble if the wrong person finds out. So, a little discretion is called for. I got a delicate house of cards goin' here. Ya know?"

Lilith chewed her bottom lip apprehensively. She had a weird feeling about this one, but for work to just throw itself in front of her like this? She wanted to stay focused on Shaun, and the best way she could do that was to do anything in her power to help her survive the Glowing Sea. "Alright. I'm in."

The ghoul gave her a wry smile. "That's what I like to hear." She threw the heavy iron door open to allow Lilith passage inside. "Come inside. I'll give ya the lowdown."

Lilith followed her inside another set of heavy iron doors, then into a derelict old office building. She followed the ghoul down a set of stairs and they entered what looked like the entrance to an excavation site. "I'm Bobbi No-Nose, and you are gonna be doing some digging."

Lil smirked. "What are we digging for? Buried treasure?"

"You could call it that. But seriously, lay off the questions."


	7. Chapter 7

The job with Bobbi had seemed simple enough. Bust one of her old pals Mel out of the Diamond City lock-up (Lilith had grudgingly opted to pay his bail instead – and had taken great pains to avoid Valentine's Detective agency in the process), report back to Goodneighbor with Mel and his special wall-dusting robot in tow, and dig back to Diamond City to bust into Mayor McDonough's secret strongroom and take whatever they could grab. After what felt like a solid day of trudging through old sewers and caved-in basements and destroying an untold amount of ghouls and mirelurks, Mel pulled Lilith aside to let Bobbi move on ahead and out of earshot.

"If Bobbi's directions are correct, and I have my doubts, the strongroom should be right through there." He nodded up ahead to the large opening Bobbi had entered.

Lilith felt a slight queasiness at his words echoing her own thoughts. She didn't like to take jobs that involved flat out stealing from people, but Mayor McDonough was sitting awfully pretty in his private box office above the stands and the poorer denizens of Diamond City. She mistrusted him just as much as she had come to mistrust Bobbi. "You've got doubts, Mel?"

"It just doesn't seem like we're under Diamond City, does it? I don't think Bobbi is telling us everything about this job."

Lilith sighed and nodded. "I agree. But we've come this far. I think if we try to back out now Bobbi will try to take us down and grab whatever loot it is for herself. We might as well lay down in this grave we've dug ourselves, huh?"

Mel laughed half-heartedly and fell into step beside her as they made their way up into the clearing. He turned back to the modified eyebot that buzzed around behind them. "Ready Sonya?"

The robot moved into position in front of a crumbling wall, and let out a sonic blast powerful enough to tear the entire wall down. Lilith coughed through what must have been the fifteenth mini dust storm of the day, pulling a ratty bandanna up to cover her face. They made their way into the tunnel that lay beyond the opening, treading carefully where it was quite dark and the dust lingered in the air. The trio emerged into what looked like a large factory basement. Huge pipes criss-crossed the floors in front of them, some of them leaking dirty water into pools on the ground.

Bobbi growled, shaking a foot. "Great, now my socks are wet." She sighed, looking around them to get her bearings. "Well guys, we're right under the Diamond City strongroom."

Mel looked at Lilith, then turned towards Bobbi. "You _sure_ this is the right place? I've been mapping it out, and I think Diamond City should be a little further North of here."

Bobbi turned on him, a grim look set on her desiccated face. "I don't have a doubt in my mind. How about a little trust for the boss?"

Lilith couldn't hold back a sound of disgust. "Damn it, tell the truth Bobbi, where are we?!"

Without missing a beat, Bobbi replied, "under the Diamond City strongroom. And that is the last time I'm saying it. We still need a way to get up there though. Mel, you think your robot will work here?"

"Look at this place. The foundation is already crumbling. One blast from Sonya and I bet the floor above would come right down. Everybody clear out. Sonya, prepare yourself for a blast at maximum power."

The three of them retreated back into the tunnels to wait out the impending blast. Lilith was near the breaking point. There was no way a blast that large wouldn't alert every Diamond City guard within a half-mile radius. If that's even where they were. When the detonation occurred, she could feel another blast of hot air and dust flying at them. She shielded her eyes yet again and followed Mel and Bobbi back out into the large basement. Whatever happened now, she had to be prepared.

Mel stopped short as he saw the robot lying on the floor under a pile of rubble. "Oh no! No. No, Sonya!"

Bobbi sneered at the man. "Pull yourself together, Mel. We don't need that thing anymore anyway."

"But..."

She spoke to the man slowly, as if he were a child. "You can make another robot with the haul we get from the strongroom. Now, keep your head in the game." She brandished a machine gun at the ready and began to climb up the path that had cleared to them into the room above.

Lilith put a hand on Mel's shoulder. "I'm sorry about Sonya. I know a guy back in Sanctuary who could help you rebuild her, though."

Mel looked at her uncertainly. She could tell he had really been proud of that bot. Hell, she thought he even cared about the thing as a friend. He let out an unsteady breath and nodded. "Thanks…"

They made their way up into the next level of the building and followed Bobbi through an open door. They emerged into a huge warehouse. And above them on a crosswalk, stood Fahrenheit and two of Goodneighbor's town watchmen.

Fahrenheit stood with her arms crossed, leaned up against a couple of large storage containers. Cool as a cucumber. "Bobbi, what are you doing here?"

Bobbi stood, the machine gun raised toward the rafters. "Shit…"

Fahrenheit giggled a little. The sound was disturbing to Lilith. "You seriously didn't think Hancock would catch wind of your little scheme?" Her face grew very serious. "He took you in, Bobbi. And you're stealing from him?"

Bobbi looked back at Lilith and Mel, who stood in the corner of the room, their weapons lowered. "Don't listen to her."

Lilith walked out into the light, flexing the trigger of her power fist. "Bobbi, what the _fuck_ is going on here?"

Fahrenheit raised an eyebrow. So this was where Hancock's favorite new "mercenary" had been playing. "I see the rest of you were in the dark about this. Nice, No-Nose. You just broke into Hancock's store room." She looked directly at Lilith. "You know. Hancock? The mayor of Goodneighbor?"

Mel clenched his fists. "Damn it, Bobbi!"

Bobbi was sweating. "Listen guys, I know this isn't what you expected. But there are still a ton of caps on the line here. Help me take her out and all of it is ours."

Mel burst out suddenly. "This is Hancock we're ripping off here! The guy tends to hold _grudges_."

Lilith stood silent, a thousand ways to punch Bobbi's appendages off her body flying through her mind. Fahrenheit spoke up again.

"Counter offer. Just go back into your tunnel and we can forget this ever happened. What do you say?"

"No wait! What is this about, Bobbi? Why did you fucking lie to us!?" Lilith took a step towards her.

Bobbi took a step backwards. "I knew no one in their right mind would help me rip off Hancock. Everyone is so damn afraid of him or so damn in love with him. He thinks he's invincible. I wanted to show him he wasn't."

Rage coursed through Lilith's body at the ghoul's words. Hancock had been nothing but kind to her. There was an offer to let things go without violence, but that option wasn't an option to her. "No. He's not invincible. And neither are you."

She primed the power fist, hefting it back behind her head and as she brought the swing forward she curled her fingers tight around the trigger. The fist let out a burst of steam, shot forward with 100 times the power a normal punch from the girl would have wrought, and blasted its way straight through Bobbi's chest. Lilith wrenched her arm from the woman's limp body, kicking her to the ground with a muddy boot. She took a few ragged breaths, and looked up at Fahrenheit. Still leaned up against that container, still cooler than ice.

"You made the right move. I _was_ itching for a fight, but I guess this works too."

Mel stared at Lilith, horrified as the blood and gobs of gore dripped from the huge metal contraption on her hand. "I-I have to say, I'm not really cool with how this went down…"

Lilith ignored him, still looking up at Fahrenheit. "I'm sorry…I didn't know this was where the bitch was leading us…"

Fahrenheit actually smiled down at her. "Hancock will be happy to hear about your loyalty. You should go pay your respects in person. It's best to stay on his good side. Trust me."


	8. Chapter 8

It was a few hours before Lilith could finally gear up the courage to go and speak to Hancock. She had had to make sure Mel got on his way safe and sound first. She felt bad – he wouldn't even look her in the eye after seeing her punch a giant hole through Bobbi's chest. She didn't blame him, though it did seem like a marvel that people still got freaked out about things like that. She had been under the impression that the Commonwealth was nothing but death and suffering, but maybe some people still managed to avoid that reality somehow.

She had also had to rent a room at the Hotel Rexford in order to try and clean herself up. She scrubbed the power fist with an oiled rag for almost an hour, trying to get most of the gore off. She had also managed to wash most of her body from the tiny sink in her room – a shower was a rare and magnificent thing in this world.

As she ascended the stairs to Hancock's quarters, she could feel the eyes of the watchmen following her. The story must have spread like wildfire by now; somehow, the stories about her had a tendency to do that here. When she reached the top of the staircase, she saw him through the open door of his quarters, sitting on the threadbare couch with a disassembled shotgun on the coffee table in front of him. He was meticulously cleaning it.

Lilith steeled herself and entered the room. "Hancock…"

He looked up. "Well, if it ain't Bobbi's little patsy…"

She couldn't tell if he was mad. Oh God, he was probably mad.

He reached beside him where she couldn't see, and all she could think was that he was going to pull out that damn knife she'd given him and shiv her with it. Instead, he held out another hefty bag of caps to her. "Here. For protecting my stash."

She took a few steps forward, just close enough to gingerly reach out and take the bag from him. She couldn't even think of anything to say.

He looked at her. "Wise decision, putting Bobbi down like that. Even if it was a little brutal." He smirked.

Lilith's eyes steeled over. She finally looked up at him. "Bobbi tricked me. She got what she deserved." She let out a heavy sigh. "I'm sorry. For everything."

"Yeah…that's usually how the story goes around here. No hard feelings." He finally stood up from the couch, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his coat and moving to look out the window.

"Lemme tell ya…this classy little tricorner hat of mine is getting heavy. Am I turning into the man? Some kind of tyrant?"

Lilith blinked, watching him. "What do you-?"

"I spend all my time putting down the people I would have been proud to scheme with just a few years ago. I need to take a walk again…get a grip on what really matters: living free."

Lilith crossed her arms. "Are you talking about leaving Goodneighbor? Aren't you the mayor?"

He turned to face her again, shrugging his shoulders. "Hey, the mayor's still the mayor, whether he's 'in residence' or not. I've walked out of here plenty of times. Keeps me honest. Can't let power get to my head. That's not what being in charge of Goodneighbor is about."

Her brows furrowed. This guy was so full of surprises she was honestly having a hard time keeping up with him. Was he suggesting…going with _her_? She could feel her heart pounding in her chest. _Okay, okay Lil…just play it cool…ask him if he wants to come with you. Ask him like you don't really care._ She shook her head, but before she could think of anything else the words were already on their way out.

"W-Well if you're definitely heading out, why not come with me?" She lowered her eyes to pretend like she was examining her fingernails. Ugh, they were actually still disgusting.

A slow smile broke across his scarred face. "Yeah…I like it. You might just be the right kind of trouble. Let me just have a little chat with my community, first. Give 'em the news."

She hung back as he exited onto the balcony that overlooked the little square. She could hear everything he said to the people of Goodneighbor, and as he spoke to them it actually worked to calm her own nerves. She perched on the arm of the couch, arms still crossed in front of her chest, and took a few moments to think. He was easily the most levelheaded person she had met in the Commonwealth, aside from Valentine. He had the right ideals for someone in power – that they shouldn't stay comfortable for long, that they should work for what they had, and should have to continue to work to keep it. He could be generous, as she had personally witnessed, and he could dole out a supreme hurt to somebody who pushed the boundaries of his generosity.

She was startled out of her thoughts when Hancock strode back through the door, slamming it behind him and clapping his hands. "Alright! You ready to get this show on the road?"

Lilith stood and nodded. "Let's do it."


	9. Chapter 9

**Hey guys! Thank you so much for the comments, favs and views! This was mostly a project to entertain myself but seeing all the Fallout love out here is super amazing. This is my favorite chapter so far, hope you guys like it too :3**

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They had been traveling together a little less than a week when they finally made it back to Sanctuary. As they strode across the little wooden bridge, two machinegun turrets whizzed and burred atop a stone pillar to either side of them.

"So this is your place, huh?" Hancock strolled beside her leisurely, a cigarette dangling from his mouth and a sawed-off shotgun dangling from one hand.

Lilith re-arranged the knapsack over her shoulder for the thousandth time, groaning at the weight of all the junk it contained. "Yep. Figured we'd make a quick stop here to check in on things and grab that suit of Power Armor before we head south."

Hancock nodded, checking his surroundings. Sanctuary was a nice little place. The houses that couldn't be salvaged had been torn down for supplies to build new ones, and the ones that had been saved were looking comfortably lived in. They paused outside a little grimy yellow house with a carport attached that had been turned into a makeshift workshop. This was also the place Preston and Sturges had been bunking down.

Lilith made her way through the front door, knocking as she entered. "Preston?"

Garvey immediately appeared from a room at the end of the hall, a hammer clutched in one hand. "General! Welcome back! We, er…" He paused at the sight of the ghoul that stood in the doorway behind Lilith.

A smug look appeared on Lilith's face. "Let me guess, 'we got word of another settlement that could use our help?' Where is it this time?"

Hancock smirked and tipped his hat at Garvey from behind her.

Preston cleared his throat. "We actually got word of a place that could be cleared out to make a new settlement. Kingsport Lighthouse, east of here on the coast. "

Lilith nodded. "Alright, Preston. I'll get to it, but I need to head south first. I think there might be someone who can tell me how to find Shaun."

Hancock was getting bored. Not that he was insensitive, but he had heard this story a couple times already. He looked around, slinging the shotgun over his shoulder and scratching his back with the barrel. To his surprise, he noticed a trader walking up the road he recognized. "Hey, Trashcan Carla, ya old bag! I never thought I'd see you this far west!" He immediately sauntered off to go and chat with the surly woman.

Lilith and Preston both watched this loud interjection. When he was out of earshot, Preston still lowered his voice to speak to her. "Um, General, are you sure about your…traveling arrangements? That's the mayor of Goodneighbor, isn't it?"

Lilith couldn't help but smile at how unsettled the man seemed. "Sure is. Hasn't hurt yet to have somebody with me who's got some political weight to throw around. Now show me where this place is on the map and I'll go check it out as soon as I can."

Preston continued to look uneasy, but he acquiesced and said no more about it. He mentioned that Mama Murphy wished to visit with her, then let her go about her business.

Lilith went to join Hancock and Carla. "Hey Carla. Got some stuff to trade when you have a minute."

"Sure, kid." The woman gave the pack Brahmin standing beside her a gentle pat, then ushered Hancock out of the way so that they could do some business.

Afterwards, Hancock waved a hearty goodbye to Carla and fell into step beside Lilith as they made their way back up the street. Lil held up a bottle of whiskey she had received in the trade. "It's almost dark now, and I figured we could wait until morning to try and make it to the Glowing Sea. My place is the one just past the workshop." She handed him the bottle and her little house key. "Get us a couple glasses ready while I go visit my psychic old lady friend?"

Hancock took the things from her, blinking. "What?"

She was already off down the street. She yelled back over her shoulder "Two minutes! I'll be right back!"

Lil walked into one of the old houses that had been patched up. In the dim light, there sat old Mama Murphy in her special chair, eyes closed as she hummed along to a Billie Holiday song that played on the radio. "Hey, Mama."

Mama Murphy opened her eyes and smiled as she saw Lil approach. "Hey, kid. Glad to see ya back again. The Sight's got somethin' to show me, but it needs Med-X this time. Another chem, another window to look through."

Lil squatted down next to the old woman, putting a gentle hand on her arm. "Are you sure, Mama? These things are gonna kill you some day…"

"I'm an old lady, kid. I'd rather use the time I got left to help you find your little one. I'm not much use for anything else these days, 'cept for sittin' in this old chair of mine…"

A look of concern crossed Lilith's face. She stayed there for a moment, silently debating. Slowly, she dropped the knapsack from her shoulder and opened one of the side pockets, producing a syringe that she held out to the old woman.

She watched intently as Mama Murphy injected herself with the needle. Her eyes widened as she saw the woman slump back in the chair and let out a heavy sigh. After a few tense moments Mama Murphy inhaled deeply and looked over at her.

"Oooh…it just makes everything feel good, don't it? I'm starting to see clearly…"

Lilith chewed her lip expectantly, remaining silent.

The old woman still looked at her but her eyes were glazed, seeing past Lilith into some distant beyond. "You're walking into a sea, but it's not water you're afraid of drownin' in. It's something…invisible…but…radiant. It burns everything in it, but…no…I can feel them. There's people. There's another heart that burns in the sea, but different than the last. Yours burns for your son, but this one…burns for you." A wistful smile crossed the old woman's face briefly. "The others can show you the way…but…they're so hard to read…be careful around them, kid."

The old woman's eyes widened suddenly. "I can't…" She took a heavy, strangled breath. "Oh…I almost thought I couldn't breathe there…Agh. Heart's beating like no tomorrow."

Lilith squeezed the woman's arm. "Mama!"

She shook her head. "Gonna need to rest…it'll be okay." She patted Lilith's hand. "You go, kid. I'll be fine."

Lilith stood, still looking at the woman, searching for any signs that she was lying. "You make sure you let me know if you need _anything_ Mama…I'm gonna have Sturges come and stay with you, alright?"

Mama Murphy shook her head again. "No, kid. I'll be fine. Somebody's waiting for you."

Lilith glanced out the door, then back at the old woman.

"Go."

She sighed. "Alright, Mama, alright. Please take care, okay? And…thank you."

Lilith mentally kicked herself as she walked up the old cracked street to her little shack. What was she doing, feeding drugs to that sweet old lady? The speech about helping her find Shaun had been a nasty piece of work. Mama Murphy knew what she was doing, but it didn't make Lilith feel any less like the scum of the earth for feeding the old gypsy's habit.

As she went to open the door of her house, she stopped short. She heard a loud thud emanating from inside, and then what sounded like a muffled cry from Hancock. She pulled a 10mm pistol out of a holster on her hip and busted the door open with her shoulder. "John!?"

Hancock looked up from the heap he was in on the floor. A very excited Dogmeat jumped off the ghoul and bounded over to her, slobbering a greeting and giving her a big happy bark. She huffed out a relieved laugh, re-holstering the pistol and kneeling to scratch Dogmeat behind his ears. "Geeze boy, you scared the pants offa me!" She shot Hancock an apologetic look. "Sorry, I didn't mean to stick you with Commander Slobber over here. He uh…he just _really_ likes making new friends."

Hancock sat up, grabbing the tricorn hat from where it had fallen on the floor during his play session with the big German Shepherd. He dropped it back onto his head and took a drink from his glass of whiskey. He had gotten a head start on her – the bottle was already half gone. "Thinkin' about me in danger scares the pants right off ya, huh?"

She blushed, realizing what she had said. She cleared her throat and stood up, busying herself with peeling off all the assorted pieces of armor she wore over her base layers. "It's a figure of speech, smartass… I thought I heard a struggle."

She stretched after she finally dropped the last plate of makeshift armor on the floor. It was always such a relief to take it off – and it happened so rarely. She walked over and plopped onto the couch, grabbing the glass Hancock had poured for her. Dogmeat immediately jumped onto the couch and hunkered down with his front paws over her legs, tongue lolling congenially.

She couldn't help but smile and stroke him behind his ear with her free hand.

Hancock dusted himself off but remained on the floor, stretching out his long legs. "S'a good dog ya got there, sister…"

She looked down at the dog, nodding. "He is that…" She glanced back at Hancock. It seemed like something was on his mind. He was quieter than usual. "Hey…is everything alright?"

His dark eyes slid up to meet hers. "Yeah, yeah…I was just thinking of you havin' to take care of Bobbi. I ain't proud of havin' to put you through that. That sort of dictatorial shit. Ain't usually my style."

" _You_ didn't put me through that. She's the one that tried to dupe us both. As far as I'm concerned, dealing with her was the right move…"

"True. But it doesn't change the fact that she's outta the picture cause of us. Hell, that sorta bull's the whole reason I became mayor in the first place. Some ass named Vic ran the town for I don't know how long before that." He sat up, resting his arms on his knees. "Guy was scum. Used us drifters like his own personal piggy bank."

Lilith took another sip of her whiskey, watching him and petting Dogmeat.

"He had this goon squad he'd use to keep people in line. Every so often he'd let them off the leash, go blow off some steam on the populace at large. Folks with homes could lock their doors, but us drifters, we got it bad…there was one night, some drifter said something to them. They cracked him open like a can of Cram on the pavement. And we all just stood there. Did nothing."

Her brows furrowed. She was curious about this man and wanted to hear his story, but at the same time she had the distinct feeling he might tell her something he would regret when he was sober. "Listen, you can't blame yourself for that…they probably would've killed you too."

"You're right. But it was still spineless. I felt like less than nothing. Afterwards, I got so high, I blacked out completely. When I finally came to, I was on the floor of the old State House. Right in front of the clothes of John Hancock. _John Hancock_ , first American hoodlum and defender of the people…I might've still been high, but those clothes spoke to me, told me what I needed to do. I smashed the case, put them on, and started a new life. As Hancock."

She drained her glass, and leaned forward – trying not to move Dogmeat too much – to refill it. Hancock leaned over and grabbed the bottle before she could, topping her off and continuing his story.

"After that, I went clean for a bit, got organized, convinced Kleo to loan me some hardware. Got a crew of drifters together and headed out into the ruins, started training. Next time Vic's boys went on their tear, we'd be ready for 'em. So, the night of, we all got loaded, let Vic's boys get good and hammered, and burst from the windows and rooftops where we'd been hiding. They never even saw it coming. We didn't have to fire a shot. We didn't have to…but we sure fucking did. It was a massacre…"

She frowned, was about to speak, then thought better of it and shut her mouth.

"Once we'd mopped up, we strolled right into Vic's headquarters in the State House, wrapped a rope around his neck, and threw him off the balcony. And there I am, gun in hand, draped in Hancock's duds, looking at all the people of Goodneighbor assembled below. I had to say something. That first time I said 'em, they didn't even feel like my words. _'Of the people, for the people!_ ' was my inaugural address. Became Mayor Hancock of Goodneighbor that day…and from then on, I vowed I'd never stand by and watch. Ever again."

Lil felt a chill creep up on her and shivered. She chewed her lip. "If you fought _so hard_ to become mayor…why leave?"

He shrugged his shoulders, taking a swig from the bottle he still held and forsaking the glass. "I ain't really the ponderous type. When an instinct takes hold, I listen. This time around, instinct said I should join up with you. Seems it was a good one. I just hope you get where I was coming from. I ain't out to bring harm to anyone that didn't earn it. And I'm getting the distinct idea you got the same plan."

Lilith looked down at the glass in her hand. "I do get it…and Bobbi didn't _deserve_ to die. Sometimes, I just get so… _angry_ …" She felt tears stinging her eyes as she recalled the scene in Hancock's storeroom. "At God, if there even is one, at Vault-Tec, the government, at the _fucking_ stupidity of people…to let it all come to this…" She smudged a tear from her cheek, motioning around the room with the other hand and spilling a little whiskey from her glass. "This place fucking sucks, John…" Her voice cracked. She took a sip and felt it burn her tears away.

Dogmeat glanced up at her, whining slightly as he laid his ears back against his head. Hancock scooted closer to where she sat with the dog, waving a hand. "Hey doll, it's not that bad…we been havin' a pretty good time together, haven't we? And you got Dogmeat here, and ole' Nicky Valentine…Preston…and probably tons of others wrapped around your finger. Have you actually _listened_ to what people are sayin' about you?"

She sniffed, and shook her head. "It's kinda hard to hear people over the sound of all this sheer fucking terror I'm experiencing."

He gave her kind of a sad smile and shook his head. "People in the Commonwealth are lookin' _up_ to you, Lil…you may feel terrified, but when _they're_ lookin' at you, they're seein' somebody who might be able to change things."

She searched his eyes. "How do you know…?"

"Well, for starters I read Piper's little article about you. But word is spreading. Ya know Travis talks about Sanctuary on the radio don'tcha?"

She shrugged. "Well yeah, but I just assumed that was a common thing to do when, ya know, safe places pop up…or whatever."

He poked her on the knee with a wrinkled finger. "No dummy. The Minutemen were a big deal back in the day. It gives people hope to know that _their new leader_ is puttin' 'em back in the saddle. Some people aren't strong enough to fight the good fight on their own. But they need somebody to set that example."

He had leaned over closer to her. She noticed his hand was resting on her knee now. He seemed in no hurry to remove it. Dogmeat stretched his neck slightly and licked Hancock's hand. She swallowed.

"Unfortunately for us, in this world the ones who reach the breaking point and finally end up making a stand for what's right, have done just that: they break."

He wanted to kiss her so bad. That was the most painful thing about this moment. He could see the little stormy cloud swirling around her head, and he truly felt for the girl. And though he certainly had no qualms about fooling around with married women, this one was different. He had no idea how conservative the people from her time truly were, had no idea how she would react to such a thing as a ghoul putting a move on her. Hell, she had only been a widow for 6 months, as far as she was concerned. Hancock had never had a problem charming a woman into his bed, but he had encountered an equal amount of hate for what he was; though she had never mentioned his being a ghoul after their initial encounter in Goodneighbor, he knew full well it was the elephant in any room they ever entered.

They both jumped slightly as a loud crack pierced the quiet night. A few tap-taps could be heard pattering the roof before a sudden downfall of irradiated rain began to pour from the sky. She actually smiled. "A rad storm. Come on."

Lilith ushered Dogmeat onto the floor and took Hancock's hand. She led him up the stairs and through her little bedroom. The room opened onto a small covered balcony. She paused to grab a bottle of Rad-X from her bedside table. She popped one in her mouth and took the bottle of whiskey from his hand to wash it down, then continued through the swinging door and out onto the balcony. Hancock stuffed his hands in his pockets, stepping out after her. They stared at the heavy clouds that bore down upon the earth where they stood. Even through the rain and the darkness, they gave off an eerie green glow, like an ironic aurora borealis. She placed her hands on the railing and leaned over. "I know they're dangerous…but they're so beautiful…"

He bumped her gently with his elbow. "There ya go, doll…at least that's one thing you like about this place, huh?"

A small smile brightened Lilith's face against the storm as Dogmeat appeared beside her, butting her leg gently with his head. She took a step back from the railing, crossed her arms and leaned against Hancock. "There are a couple other things I like." They stood like that for a while, sharing the rest of the whiskey and waiting out the storm.


	10. Chapter 10

Lilith trudged through the dirt, sending up clouds of dust with every step. The Power Armor she had been wearing for the past four days was so heavy, if she were to jump it would cause the ground to tremble beneath her. Hancock walked close beside her, shotgun clenched at the ready. They were almost out of the Glowing Sea now. The strange yellow-brown fog in the air was starting to diminish, and the Geiger counter in her Armor was ticking slightly less often.

"Are you sure you wanna try and kill one of those Coursers? I saw one once. Nasty son of a bitch…"

Lilith's voice sounded like it was coming through on a long-distance pre-war telephone. "I've got to. From what Virgil said, that relay chip they have in their heads is the only thing that can get me into the Institute."

He glanced over at her. He still found it strange talking to the girl buried inside the behemoth steel suit. "Have you thought about what you're gonna do if you actually get inside? The coursers are built to kill people. The whole place is probably crawlin' with 'em, and who knows what else."

As they approached a crumbling highway overpass, Lilith stopped and put her arm out, motioning for Hancock to do the same. "Look alive…there's something moving on the other side of that overpass."

She crouched and held up the sniper rifle she carried, peering down through the sight. A Deathclaw stalked the waste just on the other side of the crumbling old freeway. It lifted its reptilian snout, sniffing the air. It wasn't that far away from them – in fact, there would be no going around. They were going to have to fight it. "Fucking Deathclaw…"

Hancock's whole body stiffened as he heard her mutter the name of the creature. He remained crouched, slowly reaching into his back pocket and removing an inhaler of Jet. He took one big, long puff from the inhaler as he slunk across the short distance between them. "What's the plan?"

"I throw all the frag grenades I have and then we shoot the shit out of it?"

The corner of Hancock's mouth twitched slightly. "You've got a sniper rifle, Lil…give _me_ the grenades, _you_ try for a head shot. It's not gonna kill it right off, but it'll be a good start."

She nodded, fumbling with a storage compartment on the hip of her armor. She finally released the latch, and Hancock swiped up an armload of grenades that immediately began to tumble out. He couldn't help but shake his head and curse under his breath at the terrible design of the Power Armor. She steadied herself and raised the gun to her shoulder, trying to catch the Deathclaw in the sights again.

Lilith caught sight of its legs moving beneath the collapsed overpass, and waited for the beast to come out into the open again. She tried to steady her breathing like Preston had taught her, but this was the first time she had encountered a Deathclaw up close since the fight in Concord. She was terrified.

The animal finally stepped out into the open after several minutes. It lifted its snout to the air again. She could tell that it sensed something, but thankfully the air hung stagnant and thick around them; there was not even a breeze to alert the monster to their scent. She took another deep breath and tried to center its head in her sights.

Hancock plucked a grenade from the bouquet in his arms and held it at the ready. He looked over at her and nodded. She pulled the trigger. The sound was deafening as the .50 caliber bullet left the chamber of the gun. The Deathclaw turned its head toward the sound just in time for the bullet to tear a good chunk out its neck. It reared and let out a terrific roar, then began to lope towards them.

Hancock depressed the trigger on one of the grenades and began launching one after another as fast as he could. Lilith tried for another shot, but the first grenade exploded at the Deathclaw's feet, throwing up a cloud of dust to obstruct her vision. The creature flew through the dust clouds as grenade upon grenade exploded in its wake. The thing was bleeding from an untold number of wounds, but it barely slowed down.

Lilith immediately dropped the rifle and fingered the latch on another compartment in her armor. She pulled out a heavily modded laser pistol and began firing blast after blast at the monster. The Deathclaw emitted an ear-piercing scream as it approached, limping now. There was blood dripping from its mouth and from its crippled legs. It reared back a heavily clawed arm as it bore down on them and brought such a devastating blow down on Lilith that it knocked her back almost 15 feet, even with the heavy suit of Power Armor. Hancock had by now run out of grenades and stood, bringing his shotgun up to aim at the Deathclaw. It had rounded on him by that time and he was able to get 2 shots off in quick succession right into the thing's face and neck. Blood splashed all over him as he drew 2 more shells from his pocket, hurrying to reload the gun.

The Deathclaw reared on him, stumbling. The upper left corner of its head had been blown off, its neck had been flayed open, and blood literally poured out of the beast. Hancock stalked toward the creature and unloaded 2 more shotgun blasts straight into its chest. The Deathclaw screamed one final time, lurched for him with the last of its strength, and collapsed. The thing managed to pin Hancock to the ground before he could jump out of the way.

He shouted and immediately tried to scramble out from under the mangled creature. A stream of blood poured over him, and he grimaced as he felt it soaking through the threadbare old suit. He huffed and had to use both hands and a knee to finally pivot the dead animal to an angle at which he could escape out from underneath. He rolled over onto his hands and knees and in almost one fluid motion he was up on his feet, running to close the distance between him and the prostrate suit of Power Armor.

He dropped to his knees beside the motionless metal behemoth, shoving his fingers between the helmet and the shoulders, trying to pry the helmet off. He finally found the release and tossed the helmet aside as it unlatched. He clutched the valve handle on the back of the suit with both hands and gave it a swift turn. The suit wheezed and let out a steaming hiss as the whole back piece unfurled, revealing Lilith's limp body inside. He grabbed her underneath her arms and lifted her up out of the suit, turning her face-up and guiding her down onto his lap. Once he had a free hand he produced a Stimpak and injected it swiftly into her shoulder.

Her eyes fluttered briefly then rolled back in her head. She was bleeding from a laceration on her forehead and her nose looked like it was beginning to bruise. He leaned down and put his ear close to her mouth to make sure she was still breathing. "C'mon Lilith, don't you die on me…not out here…"

He sat for a few more moments with the girl cradled in his lap, cleaning the wound and waiting to see if she would wake up on her own. When she did not, he stuck her with another Stimpak and hoisted her up over his shoulder as gently as he could. He retrieved the shotgun and her laser pistol, and started walking. The least he needed to do was get them out of the Glowing Sea before the girl died of radiation poisoning.


	11. Chapter 11

Just as the sun was setting, Hancock entered the decimated town of Natick. He had left Lilith tucked away around the corner of an old hotel and proceeded to quickly clear out the raider camp inside. Thankfully it was a small group and they had been drunk; easy pickings for the ghoul who had been on a steady diet of Jet and Buffout all day. He kicked together something of a nest out of the raiders' bedding supplies and retrieved Lilith, carrying her inside and placing her down upon it. Hancock checked her pulse and her breathing once more before stoking up the trash can fire the raiders had left behind.

He sighed, crossing his arms and pacing. He had been so worried and over-cautious about getting her somewhere safe that he hadn't even given a thought to leaving her Power Armor behind. She would probably be mad about that when she woke up. _If she wakes up…_ Hancock shook his head, busying himself with tearing the place apart looking for some food. He found one small cooler tucked under the registration desk that contained a couple bottles of purified water, a bottle of vodka, and some sealed noodle cups.

He cracked open the vodka, tossing the cap aside, and hefted the cooler under one arm to make his way back to Lilith. He was midway into a nice long swig of the liquor when he heard her call his name. He stepped out of the shadows and immediately went to her side, dropping the cooler on the floor. "Hey now, don't move around too much…I think you got yourself a concussion…"

She was half sitting up with her head clutched in one hand when he kneeled next to her. She immediately reached out with the other hand to grasp his sleeve. "What happened? Did you kill it? Ohh my head…"

He set down the bottle of vodka and patted her hand gently. "Yeah, doll…not soon enough, but we killed it. Here - " He rummaged in the cooler and brought out a bottle of water. "Do you have any of your rad meds anywhere? I had to carry you a ways, and you never woke up long enough to take any Rad-X."

She took the water from him gratefully, licking her parched lips as she untwisted the cap. "Um…yeah." She felt in the pockets of the utility belt she wore around her waist, fishing out a bottle of RadAway. She popped a couple of the pills in her mouth and washed them down with the water, almost managing to chug the whole bottle in one go.

Hancock watched her. He felt an enormous weight lifting from his heart to see her awake; more enormous than he had let himself realize. He cleared his throat and stood, retrieving the containers of noodle soup from the cooler and setting them to warm up next to the fire.

She pulled one of the raider's blankets out from under her butt and wrapped it around her shoulders, curling her knees up to her chest. She watched as he stirred the soup, being so domestic. His clothes were stained with dirt and drying clots of blood. "You killed that thing, and carried me all the way out of the Glowing Sea? All the way here?"

Hancock nodded. "I uh…I left the tin can behind. Sorry toots…"

She shook her head. "The last thing you need to be is sorry. I don't remember anything after it came at me, but I'm going to go out on a limb and assume you saved my life. Thank you…"

In response he set down a steaming bowl of the noodle soup in front of her, plopping a spoon into her hand. He sat down across from her and resolved to have vodka for dinner. He set the last bottle of water on the floor in front of her. She tucked her wayward dreads behind her ear and lifted the container of soup gingerly in both hands, blowing on it. Steam rose from it and formed a misty wall between them.

He lit a cigarette and shook his head. "To think I ever doubted you…"

She stopped in the middle of taking a small sip of soup, forsaking the spoon and drinking straight from the bowl. She raised her eyebrows and looked up at him. "You had doubts about me? I guess all this raider makeup doesn't make me look that impressive does it?"

"You kiddin' me? I never told you, but I wasn't real happy with myself for sending you out to Pickman's Gallery on your own, or for what happened with Bobbi. But you took care of it. Hell, Bobbi's mean mug alone was enough to make most mercs turn tail and run. It's just rare these days, to find someone who's not just willing to take things the way they're handed to 'em. Too many good folks not willing to get their hands dirty and too many assholes taking advantage of it. Look at what happened to Diamond City. Before McDonough took over, it was a half-decent place to live."

Lilith brought the soup back up to her lips. She wanted so badly to just lie down and try to sleep for a few hours, but she knew if she did have a concussion Hancock would never let her. So she took another sip of the soup, set the bowl down, and pulled a Jet inhaler out of her little utility belt. She took a couple quick puffs, deciding being high was better than just being tired and in pain.

"Place was a little stricter than I usually go for, but not terrible. I thought he and I had a pretty happy childhood. But then he decides he's gonna try and get elected with his anti-ghoul crusade – 'Mankind for McDonough.' Before you know it, you got families with kids lining up to drag folks they called 'neighbor' out of their homes and throw 'em to the ruins."

Lilith had sputtered on the inhaler and once she regained herself, she interrupted him. "Wait wait, you and McDonough knew each other as kids?"

He smirked bitterly and nodded, taking a haul off the vodka bottle. "Oh yeah. Guy's my brother. Grew up in a little shack together on the waterfront. Guy was the standard big brother – entitled, punchy, liked to shove rotten tatoes down my shirt and slap my back. But I never thought he'd be capable of something like what they did to those ghouls…"

Lilith shook her head, confused. "How could they do something like that…?"

"There's always been a pretty big divide between the folks living in the stands and those down on the field. McDonough ran on it because he thought enough of those Upper Stands assholes would vote for him. Guess he was right. I remember storming into his office above the stands after the inauguration speech. He was just standing there, staring out the window, watching as the city turned on the ghouls. He didn't even look at me, just said: 'I did it, John. It's finally mine.' "

Hancock paused to rummage in his pockets. He had swiped a can of Mentats from one of the dead raiders earlier and he pulled it out now, popping a couple. "Should have killed him right there, but I don't think it would have changed anything. Instead I pleaded with him, begged him to call it off. He said he couldn't. He had nothing against the ghouls. He was just carrying out the will of the people. And he couldn't betray the voters. And then he smiled. That hideous, fucking mile-long smile. He never smiled like that when we were kids. I didn't even recognize him."

Her eyes widened. "Wh-what do you mean you didn't recognize him?"

"I dunno. Just didn't seem like the guy I grew up with. When I'd first heard the rumors he'd been swapped for a synth, thinking back on that night, I thought it made a lot of sense. But now, I don't know…I don't think I buy it. I've seen him since then and there's no way they copied him that perfectly. Even got his tight-ass walk. But at the time, I just needed to get the hell away from him. Him and that whole damned city."

"He…murdered those ghouls?"

"Him and the whole city. I still wasn't a ghoul at this point so I didn't have to leave, but I couldn't bring myself to stay in that cesspool after that. I'd been sneaking off to Goodneighbor for years to get decent chems, so I knew the safe routes. I managed to track down some of the families, lead 'em there, but most couldn't get used to the Goodneighbor lifestyle. I brought them food for a couple of weeks, but after a while, they just disappeared. Folks in Diamond City signed their death warrants and all the good people were willing to just sit by and watch. I felt like I was the only one who saw how screwed up things truly were, who couldn't just pretend things were fine. Still feel that way…or I did. Until I met you."

Lilith was mid-inhale on the Jet again when he said those words. She swallowed, lowered the inhaler and looked at him.

He took another long swig from the bottle. It was almost empty now. "I know I run my mouth, but having someone who sees the world for what it is and is willing to do something about it…it's meant a lot to me. I…I feel damn lucky to have you as a friend."

Lilith wouldn't let herself think about why she said what she said next. The Jet was coursing through her, and she was still in shock from her near-death experience; but mostly she was acutely lonely. She knew she wasn't _alone_. But hearing Hancock tell his story about feeling like an outsider - being made to feel that way by his own brother, hell a whole _city_ \- had brought a sudden, soul-crushing weariness upon her. She so badly missed the comforting touch of someone she loved; the familiar weight in the bed beside her at night; trusting someone enough to maybe just believe it when they told you everything was going to be okay. He must care for her if he had risked his own life carrying her for miles just to get her to safety. She thought about the prophecy Mama Murphy had told her before they left Sanctuary. _The burning heart…?_

"And that's…what we are? Friends?"

Hancock blinked, slightly taken aback. After a moment he set aside the bottle of vodka and leaned forward on his hands, so that his face was only a short distance from hers. "Well, now that you mention it, I have been having slightly more impure thoughts than usual…" He placed a scarred hand over her smooth one, inching ever closer. "Maybe we'll get to…act on those…"

He was so close to her now that she could smell the blood on him. When he finally crossed the short distance and kissed her, she could taste a slight metallic tinge in his mouth. She gingerly lifted her hands to the collar of his coat, curling her fingers into the fabric. He pushed the bowl of noodles out of his way and crawled closer to her, one hand slinking up her side and curling around her back. He broke away after a minute, clearing his throat and taking a breath. It ended up being a bit more chaste than he would have preferred, but he suddenly found himself feeling unusually tongue-tied.

"Look, I don't mean we – what I mean to say is…" He sighed, trailing the hand back down her side then up again, trying to be reassuring. He pulled her gently against his chest and tucked the blanket up around her shoulders. "I dunno what I would've done if uh…if things had gone bad today, Lil. Ya know, I'm not out here for nothin'…I want you to live long enough to find your boy."

She swallowed a lump that had formed in her throat. "I'm sorry I scared you…" She stared into the fire for a few moments, then her eyes drifted up to his. He could see that they were wet in the glow of the firelight. "John, I…I haven't told you everything about myself. I'm not…I mean I wasn't always this 'beacon of hope,' or whatever people think I am now. I was a lawyer before the war, but…I was a corporate defense lawyer. Do you know what that is?"

He shook his head, looking a little confused. "I've heard about lawyers a little bit, sure, but that was all pre-war, judicial mumbo-jumbo wasn't it? Back when we had courts and juries?"

She nodded, pulling away from him and sitting up so she could swipe some of her wayward hair out of her face. "Yeah…lawyers were people who went to court to either try to defend or prosecute someone convicted of a crime. Basically. So I worked for a corporation. And corporations were like, the things that controlled everything. They had so much money…and they were run by people, just like everything else, but…they had found loop-holes in economic law that allowed them to just…I mean they had so much money _they_ were the ones who decided who the next president was gonna be, ya know?"

A doubtful look crossed Hancock's face, but he nodded.

"So what I did, was…I would go to court to protect _their_ interests. If someone sued them for _anything_ , whether they actually did it or not, it was my job to make sure that they came out looking innocent and angel-eyed. And most of the time, they weren't. But I was good at my job. I made _so_ much money, and I was destroying people's lives. By the time the case was over, it was usually the prosecutors paying the corporation restitutions. It was all like a big game to me…and the feeling I got when we won, it was…it was like that radiation drug you took. At the time, it felt so worth it, to have some of the most powerful people in the world patting me on the back…I never even stopped to think about the people who were getting sick and dying from our shoddy products; the people who had to hand over their life savings when they lost a case, everything they had…"

She hadn't looked at him since she had started talking about her past. She was ashamed of the person she had been in that former life; at the fact that it had taken a literal apocalypse for her to realize what truly mattered. She looked up at him now; his face was dimly lit by the undulating light thrown off by the fire. She could never tell what was behind those inky eyes, and sometimes that worried her.

He finished the bottle of Vodka, stood up and began rummaging for trash and bits of wood or fabric he could feed the fire with.

She blinked, sniffling slightly. "I'm…I'm not that person anymore. I mean people say things are never just black and white, but now, in this place, these things I see every day…this feels real to me, John, more real than anything that happened to me before the war. I had this perfect little fucking bubble and it just feels like…like a dream. Like everything was just gray and nothing really mattered. I never had to fight to survive. I never had to kill for my dinner. I never woke up in an abandoned building with a-a _ghoul_ cooking me fucking soup!"

She was getting herself worked up. Her voice cracked a couple times, then she hiccupped once or twice and covered her eyes with her hands.

Hancock tossed a couple ancient Boston Bugles into the fire and then went to her, sinking to the ground and pulling her against him again. "Hey toots, no need to get yourself worked up here…I ain't judgin' you, I'm just letting you get this off your chest. It doesn't matter to me _what_ you did before the war. That was 200 years ago. What you're doing now…that's all that matters, right? So we both got things we need to atone for. No use sittin' and dwellin' on it. We just need to get out there and kick some ass…yeah?"

She sniffled a few more times then gave him a slow nod. "Ugh, I'm sorry…you're just the first person I've met who doesn't look at me like I'm the reincarnation of Jesus Christ…"

He raised a nonexistent eyebrow. "Who?"

She snorted. "Never mind. I mean you don't just follow me around all kitten-eyed, waiting for me to solve your problems." She turned to look up at him. "But, now that I think of it, you are following me around, and I _did_ solve a couple of your problems…"

He laughed softly, shrugging against her. "What can I say? The view is to die for."

She blushed. Hancock smirked and reached over, gently brushing some of the wetness from her cheek with a thumb. "Listen Lil, it's been a minute and you haven't passed out or puked all over me. I'd say it's safe for you to get some sleep. We should keep moving in the morning."

She nodded, pulling the blanket up around her shoulders again. She was silent for a moment. "Would you…lay down with me?"

Hancock nodded, letting her get snuggled up in the blankets and then settling in beside her, removing the tricorn and placing it on the ground beside them.


	12. Chapter 12

"Z2-47, initialize factory reset! Authorization code Zeta-5-3-kilo!"

The Courser's face noticeably twitched as Lilith barreled around the corner into the room, yelling the code Mama Murphy had given her. "How…did you…" Its body fell limp to the floor before it could even finish its question.

She placed a hand on the wall, leaning against it and trying to catch her breath. When the Courser's signal led her to Greenetech Genetics, she hadn't expected having to fight her way through an army of Gunner thugs just to get to it. They were scarier than raiders more often than not; not just because they had a better arsenal, but they were usually much better shots. She coughed a couple times, wiping a grimy blood-spattered arm across her forehead.

She heard a couple shotgun blasts go off behind her and spun around to see Hancock backing out of the previous room toward her, furiously reloading the sawed-off. He just barely dodged the super-heated beam from a Gunner's laser pistol, raised the shotgun and blasted the perp over a balcony railing. "Come on! At least try!"

Lilith couldn't help letting out an anxious little laugh. It sounded more like air escaping a balloon, but she didn't let it bother her. "Any more left?"

"Nah, that was the last of 'em. Unless you count the three little pigs over there." Hancock gestured toward the wall on the far side of the room, where three Gunners sat on their knees, trussed up with their hands behind their backs. She ignored them for the time being and went swiftly to the body of the Courser.

One of the Gunners spoke up. "Hey toots, how about you fuckin' untie us!?"

"Shut up, Raider-Bait. She'll do with ya what she damn well pleases." Hancock lifted a cigarette to his scarred lips, lighting it and stalking over to where Lilith was busily scrounging around in her knapsack on the floor. "How the hell did you know that thing's…whaddaya call it, deactivation code?"

She glanced back at him over her shoulder as she pulled a rusty bone saw from her pack, holding out the cord to him. "Remember my psychic old lady friend? All the rumors are true. Plug this in."

Hancock took the plug from her and walked over to the wall, sticking it into a socket that sat low to the ground. "Your leg's bleeding."

She had to raise her voice over the whir of the saw. "I'll check it later!"

Hancock squinted his eyes against the smoke from his cigarette as he watched her shakily lower the saw to the top of the Courser's skull. The sound became broken and chortled as it began to cut through steel and wire. He let out a sigh, fishing for a Stimpak within his various pockets.

Ever since the night they had kissed, Lilith had been acting distant. Giving him commands; avoiding his numerous flirtations; taking all of his Jet; averting her eyes every single night while simultaneously asking him to sleep beside her. Hancock was getting tired of her bullshit, and there were various times per day when he almost opened his mouth. Against all his better judgment, he had yet to say anything to her.

He looked up as the bone saw fell silent. She sat on her knees, splattered in the machine oil that served as the synth's blood. She was holding a very small object in her hand, wiping oil and steel shrapnel off it with her shirt. "That it?"

"Hey _bitch_ , are you gonna untie us or what!?" One of the Gunners spoke up again, agitated for some reason.

Lilith was standing by this time. She pocketed the microchip, switching it out for the 10mm at her hip. She strode purposefully over to one of the Gunners at the end of the trio, put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger. The Gunner in the middle of the line let out a disgusted sound as he flinched away from the blood and gore that splattered him. "Fuckin' A lady, what the fu-!?"

"Shut up. Be quiet for two fucking seconds and I'll let the two of you live. If you move one more muscle I swear to God you'll both be dead." She looked him square in the eyes as she removed an inhaler of Jet from her utility belt and took a great big huff from it.

The Gunner trembled and nodded emphatically. "Okay yeah sure you got it…"

"Hello!?"

Lilith looked over as she heard a woman's voice come from the other side of the room. Through a window she hadn't noticed before, a terrified woman stared at her. "Of course, a hostage, why not…"

She threw up her hands, crossed the distance to a door, checked it quickly to affirm that it was locked, then moved to a wall-mounted monitor and tap-tapped the keys a few times. "Password protected…" She tap-tapped a few more times, managing to break the password after a minute. The door slid open on its own, and the woman appeared in the doorway.

"Thank you! I don't know what to say…"

Lilith eyed the girl up and down. She looked dirty and tired, wearing nothing but a pair of old long johns. "You don't have to say anything. You're welcome."

"My…Institute designation is K1-98. But I prefer Jenny. So yes, I'm a synth. If you hadn't already guessed. I knew they'd send a Courser…I just didn't think he'd find me so fast. I think I would have lost him, too. But I was captured by these…mercenaries. And all this happened."

"You escaped from the Institute?"

"Yes…thanks again for your help. I'm going to look for supplies before heading out. And before you ask, no, I don't need any more help. The Commonwealth is unforgiving. I need to make it on my own or I'm dead. Maybe we'll meet again, under better circumstances. I…hope we do."

"Whoa, Lil, are you sure you wanna just let her go?"

Jenny looked from Lilith to Hancock.

Lilith glanced at Hancock, then turned her gaze back to Jenny. "Do you know how to get back into the Institute?"

The woman shook her head. "They teleport us out, and teleport us back in again from a specific location. I skipped out on mine. Decided to escape while I was already above ground…sorry."

Lilith nodded and raised an arm, stepping aside and allowing Jenny passage between her and Hancock. "Go on…"

The girl nodded to her, hurried out of the room and disappeared. Hancock looked at Lilith, a question imprinted on his scarred features.

She looked back at him. "What? She doesn't know anything." She sighed. "None of them do. Sometimes they just…decide they want a real life."

"How do you know so much about synths all of a sudden?"

"I've…worked with the Railroad a couple of times. Met a couple other synths who escaped."

"Well, you really get around, don'tcha?" He thrust out the Stimpak he'd finally found. "Your leg's still bloody."

She blinked and finally looked down. Her pants were seared open on her thigh just above her knee. The blood around the wound was drying, but she could clearly see a nasty burn from where one of the Gunner's laser pistols had grazed her. She took the Stimpak Hancock offered and stuck it into her leg, depressing the plunger on the syringe. She tossed it aside after it was empty and began walking toward the elevator.

"Hey lady, you're gonna let us go right?"

She glanced over at the two remaining Gunners as she pressed the call button on the wall panel next to the door. "I said I'd let you live. Not that I was going to untie you. You two can rot there for all I care."

The man's face quickly drained of color as he watched the small fierce woman and the ghoul disappear into the elevator.

Lilith hit the down button with her fist, glanced at Hancock for a brief moment, then suddenly pushed him up against the elevator wall as the doors closed. She pressed her mouth against his feverishly, gripping at the lapels of his coat for purchase. He responded readily enough at first, but after a few moments he pushed her away.

"Hey doll, we got some shit to clear up before we-"

"What!? You've been flirting with me non-stop, and now you don't want it?"

"Lil, that's not what I'm sayin'-"

"What _are_ you saying?"

"I'm sayin' you've been acting like a bitch!" He threw his arms up in exasperation. "Fuck Lil, I dunno how else to say it. I'm pretty sure that's the first time you've even _touched_ me since I saved your ass from that Deathclaw! I know I ain't exactly your pre-war Prince Charming, but I _thought_ we had some kinda good thing going."

She crossed her arms and looked away from him. The elevator announced their arrival at ground level with a loud ping. She immediately walked out and headed toward the building's exit. Hancock stalked out after her. "You don't just walk away from me, sister!"

He followed her all the way out into the decrepit old streets of Cambridge. "Goddamnit Lilith, get back here! What are you, a fuckin' child?"

She stopped in the middle of the street and turned to face him. The day was brown and cloudy and a steady wind was blowing from the north. It whipped her shirt and some of her hair around her as she hugged herself. "No…I'm not…but I _have_ one…somewhere and I…I…" She stammered over her words, tears welling in her eyes for the unknownth time since she had crawled out of Vault 111.

"I don't know what's gonna happen, John. The closer I get, the bigger this hole inside me feels. I've been strung out for _days_ , I'm covered in people's _blood_ , I don't…I'm scared I'm gonna fucking _die_ before I can even find Shaun…or that he's already dead…"

Hancock took a few steps toward her. "I'm not gonna let you die, sister…"

She shook her head. "How can you promise me that? That's absurd! Why are you even helping me!? What are you doing?"

He fumbled with a tin of Mentats he had produced from his pocket so he wouldn't have to look her in the eye. "C'mon doll, you're doin' what's right. You're fightin' for a good cause. We've talked about this already."

"I'm fighting because it's the only thing I _can_ do. I don't…I never wanted anybody else to get so wrapped up in this with me! Do you know how much harder that makes it?"

Hancock swallowed the Mentats dry. He lit a cigarette and finally looked up at her, his dark eyes serious. "Look doll…being out here with you, it's made me realize. Most of my life to this point, I've been running out on the good things I got. I skipped out on my family, my life in Diamond City. Took up with you just to get outta Goodneighbor. Hell, running from myself is what made me into…into a damn ghoul. But being here with you, for the first time in my life, things have just felt…right. And running…it's the furthest thing from my mind. I mean, I left Goodneighbor thinkin' I was just gonna sharpen up the 'ol killer instinct. But whether it's fate or destiny or just goddamn coincidence, I ended up with someone like you."

He kicked a worn boot into the cracked pavement, dragging from his cigarette as he took a moment to choose his words. "I turned one of the nastiest settlements in the Commonwealth into a refuge for the lost. I thought I'd done somethin' I could hang my hat on. But being out here, with you, it's made me realize just how small time I'd been thinking. And that maybe all my running, from my life, myself…maybe it wasn't such a bad thing after all."

Her brows furrowed as she stared down the distance between them. What was he saying? She was trying to tell him he needed to return to his life in Goodneighbor, and he obviously was not interested in hearing that. How could she explain that she wanted him to leave because it was for his own safety? She had had this dread feeling inside her ever since leaving Virgil's cave in the Glowing Sea that things were going to get much harder and much more bloody before they were over.

Lilith was still mourning her parting with Valentine, but at least he was safe in Diamond City. But Hancock…Hancock had been this surprising source of strength and support for her and she cared about him and she could not let him get hurt or die because of her, and he would _not_ just get fed up and go.

"You may have run, but you always ran for a reason, Hancock."

"Been tryin' to convince myself of that for a long time, but hearin' that coming from someone like you…I don't know if you understand what that means to me."

He interrupted her before she could continue. "So lemme get to the point, doll. Throwing in with you has been the best decision I've ever made. It's like I found a part of myself that I never knew was missing…which happens sometimes when you're a ghoul. If I hadn't taken up with you, I'd probably be in a gutter somewhere, getting gnawed on by Radroaches. You've been one hell of a friend…"

She chewed her lip. This wasn't what she needed right now, one of his fucking autobiographical stoner pep talks. "But…you've been thinking about us as more than just friends. Is that it?"

"Well, is it that obvious? Isn't that what _you_ were tellin' _me_ a couple weeks ago? But you don't wanna keep wakin' up to this ugly mug every morning. Never wish that on anyone I cared for…"

She reached up and yanked a couple of her dreads suddenly, hard, growling in exasperation and spinning around on her heels. "Fuck, John, will you stop with this self-deprecating _shit_!? I can't handle all of this right now! I feel like I'm fucking unraveling! Can't you see I've been acting like a queen bitch because I _want_ you to leave!?"

He blinked, standing there watching her and feeling suddenly impotent.

She dropped her hands to her sides limply, deflating from her sudden outburst. "I want you to run, John. I _need_ you to run away from this. If you get hurt…if you die trying to protect me, what am I going to do? This is _my_ burden to bear. You've done so much for me…I can't repay you with blood and misery…you should go back to Goodneighbor and forget about me."

"No."

"No? That's it? _No_!?"

He squared himself, crossing his arms and looking at her straight in the eyes. "I'm not gonna leave you to do this on your own, toots. Sorry."

She stared at him, speechless, as he stared straight back at her.

Hancock strode over to her, his swagger recaptured for the moment. It was the easiest thing for him to revert back to, and it had a remarkable track record for getting him out of delicate situations. "Thanks for the concern doll, but I just can't picture myself doin' anything else besides watchin' your back. You're stuck with me." He threw his arm around her shoulder and started them walking down the street. "So whadda we do with this chip?"

Lilith's voice was whisper-soft when she responded. She was still trying to wrap her head around the fact that the eventuality she had been preparing herself for was not what was happening. "We need to go to the Railroad."


	13. Chapter 13

**Ah geeze! Thank you everybody again for the comments and follows and favorites! I know my fierce mama is not everyone's favorite right now, and let's face the facts, you will all probably hate her more before this thing is through. She has manifested into her own strange, lovely creature as I have been writing, and as much of a cinnamon roll as our mayor is, who doesn't love to see him pining away? I only hope that she can redeem herself adequately by the end ;)**

* * *

"Can you take a look at these schematics? A scientist named Virgil said they could get me into the Institute." Lilith stood in the Railroad HQ, a dingy crypt underneath Boston's Old North Church. There were actual skeletons buried in its closets, but it had served the Railroad quite well so far in eluding the Institute's grasp.

Desdemona regarded Lilith with her unflinching brown eyes as she took a drag from a cigarette. She took the documents from Lilith and inspected them shrewdly. "So that's what the business with the Courser chip was all about. You needed that frequency I take it? Why? What does this machine do?"

"The Institute uses teleportation to get in and out. The Interceptor can hijack their signal and send me instead."

Desdemona's eye widened. "We spent dozens of years and too many good agents' lives only to discover not a god damned thing. And now…we have the answer thanks to you. Teleportation… That the Institute could build something so…" She shook her head briefly, banishing her thought. "But we've got work to do. This is our top priority now. I want Tinker Tom to help you in any way possible to get this device built."

Lilith nodded. "Thanks, Des. This means a lot to me."

After going over some more details about the plans for the Signal Interceptor with Tinker Tom, Lilith made her way out of the Railroad's underground base. She had made Hancock wait outside both times they had been here; Dr. Amari had told her that he laid a blind eye on the Railroad doings in Goodneighbor, and she wasn't entirely convinced that it would be safe for Hancock to have his name directly associated with the group any more than it already was.

Hancock pushed himself up from a reclined position against a crumbling old wall when he saw her emerge from the inconspicuous public works grate in the middle of the road. He flicked aside a cigarette and strode over, giving her a hand up out of the sewer. "So what's the word?"

"Tom needs some time to fill in the gaps in the schematics, but they seem confident. I don't wanna get my hopes up, but…"

He nudged her with an elbow as they began walking. "But…they might be able to get us in there."

She glanced at him briefly. "They might, but we need to go back to Sanctuary to see if Sturges can give us any help. He's the only other person besides Tinker Tom who's got the technological know-how to build this machine. Maybe with both of them working on it, we'll be able to make more headway."

Hancock gave her a nod. "Back to the homestead it is then."

* * *

Preston assaulted Lilith almost immediately upon their entering Sanctuary. "General! It's good to see you back safe. If you've got a moment, there's something I need to speak to you about."

Lilith sighed and dropped her bulging knapsack to the ground, stretching her back. Hancock dutifully picked it up and slung it over one shoulder as if it weighed nothing.

"What's up Preston?"

"Well General, thanks to you we've gotten big enough that we're having trouble communicating with all our settlements. It's a good problem to have. And I have a solution. I think it's time to retake the Castle. It used to be the Minuteman HQ, way before my time. Well-fortified, centrally-located, and most important – it has a powerful radio transmitter we can use to broadcast to the whole Commonwealth."

Lilith raised an eyebrow. "So what happened to this 'Castle' if it was so well-fortified?"

"This was long before I joined up, but the story I heard was that some kind of monster came out of the sea and destroyed the fort. A lot of the leaders were killed in that battle, and I guess nobody ever felt it was worth the risk to try to retake it. I've always wondered if losing the radio station was the beginning of all our later problems. So…should I have an assault force assemble near the Castle?"

Lilith blinked and stood silent. Sometimes Preston's ostentatiousness was more than she was prepared to handle.

Hancock spoke up in her silence, crossing his arms and taking a step, somewhat protectively, between them. "So lemme get this straight, Garvey. You wanna send a bunch of un-trained recruits to march on an abandoned old stronghold, without surveillance or reconnaissance, to smoke out a sea monster, which may or may not even exist. That it?"

Preston's face remained infuriatingly smug. "Yes, Hancock, that's the gist of it."

Hancock looked back at Lil.

Since their little spat in Cambridge, he was trying to take it easy on her, to let her take things at her own pace. He knew she was struggling. At the same time he couldn't help but admire the way she kept going; sometimes he knew she was literally dragging herself through the days, but others she was more upbeat and responsive.

He also knew that she was exhausted. They had gotten very drunk one night on their trip back and she apologized to him profusely for the way she had been treating him. He then convinced her to ease up on the Jet and booze because it was making her nightmares worse. She woke up at least once every night, covered in cold sweat and mumbling both her dead husband's and Kellogg's names. He had had to actively talk her down from a couple of the worst ones.

"Fuck's sakes Garvey, can't ya-"

"Let's do it." Lilith interrupted Hancock before he could tell Garvey to let the girl take a break.

Preston smiled. "Great. We'll do some recon and meet you outside the castle."

"Wait a minute, Preston. I need you to do something in return this time. I want you and Sturges to help me build a Signal Interceptor that will teleport me into the Institute. If we can recapture the Castle, will you work with the Railroad to help me?"

Preston stopped just as he was about to walk away. "A Signal Interceptor? Well, I don't know how much help I could be with something like that, General, but I can guarantee you'll have the help of any Minuteman you ask. If you show Sturges what you need, he'll help you as much as he can, I can promise you that."

Lilith nodded. "Any help you can offer is greatly appreciated, Preston. I'm close now. The Railroad needs a couple more days to work things out that _we_ can take clearing the Castle. When we get back, we build the machine."

Preston nodded and snapped her a hearty salute. "Affirmative, General. I'll assemble the team and meet you at the Castle in three days time. Let me just put the coordinates into your map."

Lilith nodded, returning his salute with as much heartiness as she could muster. She held out her arm, presenting the Pip-boy to Preston so that he could update her map. After he had left the pair, Hancock turned on her. "Lil, what do you think you're doin'?"

She looked up at him, lighting a cigarette. "What? This'll make Preston happy, _maybe_ even get him off my back for the near future. And we have extra help building the Interceptor. It's win-win."

"Except you're practically dead on your feet. You need to take some time to rest, doll. Maybe try to get a full 8 hours in for once?"

She sighed, starting them walking up the familiar old street. "No rest for the wicked, right?"

"I'm serious. You know that right?"

"I know, Hancock. Look, this place is on the coast. Not exactly centrally-located, but the trip'll only take 2 days. That gives me one full day to hang out and relax. All right?"

He sighed, shoving his hands in his pockets. "Fine. You already know I can carry ya, but that's not exactly my idea of a good time, ya feel me? I prefer my ladies awake and responsive."

She couldn't help but offer him a weary smile as she took a drag from the cigarette and exhaled slowly through her nose. "It will be nice to spend a night in my own bed…feels like it's been forever."

When they approached her little clapboard house, Codsworth and Dogmeat greeted them out front. Lilith smiled and dropped to a knee to pet Dogmeat as he barked happily, wagging his big doofy tail. It made a thwumping sound against Codsworth's round metal body.

"Welcome home, mum! I say, master Dogmeat, please be more courteous with your tail-wagging!"

The Mr. Handy floated a couple feet away from the dog, arcing around to hover beside Lilith. "I took the liberty of straightening up inside while you were away, mum. The place is spick and span and ready for your arrival! Is there anything else I can do for you?"

Lilith stood up and shook her head as Dogmeat darted away from her to greet Hancock. She really couldn't help but adore the way the two had become fast friends. "No Codsworth, thank you. You don't even have to do that, honestly…"

"Why mum! Don't be silly! My purpose is to make sure you are comfortable!"

"You do a good enough job making sure everyone _else_ here is comfortable."

"And it warms my circuits to see you approve! By the way, you should really stop and look at the gardens while you're home, mum. The crops are coming in nicely!"

"I'll be sure to. Thanks again Codsworth." The robot jetted away as she opened the door to her little house, allowing Hancock and Dogmeat passage inside.

Hancock maneuvered closer to her now that they were behind closed doors. He smirked. "I think the robot's got a crush on ya, doll."

She rolled her eyes at him as she began the laborious process of taking off her armor. Hancock caught her up in his arms before she could get too far, holding her there in silence for a moment and looking down at her. "Hey…"

She blinked up at him. "Hey…"

He gave her a small quirky smile as he began to finish what she had started, slowly and methodically unbuckling the leather and metal pieces, starting at her arms and shoulders. He gave her a quick peck on the lips before kneeling to remove the pieces that protected her legs.

She immediately had a flashback to when Nate had proposed to her all those centuries ago. She had been so young and restless and full of hope, fresh out of her pre-law program and aggressively chasing internships at all the best firms in Boston. They had first met a few years before - her freshman year in college - at a bar. He had tried so hard to keep her grounded when she started to become successful, and had dropped to his knee and proposed to her the moment she had told him she was pregnant.

"Stop." She grabbed Hancock's shoulders and pulled him up.

He frowned at her as he stood up, tossing a leg-plate onto the floor. "What?"

"It's um…it probably sounds stupid but…you just looked like Nate did when he…proposed to me." She averted her eyes, reaching behind her back to undue the clasps on her chest plate.

Hancock's gaze immediately softened. As much competition as he couldn't help but feel with her dead spouse, the feelings of jealousy did not compare with the idea that he had inadvertently caused her pain. "Sorry doll, there's no way I could have-"

"I know. And I don't want that to interfere with this…with us…" She dropped the chest plate on the ground and took a step towards him, taking the edges of his frock coat in her small hands, pulling it down gently and straightening it out, running her fingers over the frayed fabric. "And I know I haven't exactly come to terms with it yet…with any of this. And I know I took it out on you, and asked you to leave…and downplayed my feelings. But I want you to know that you sticking around, however _stupid_ it is, it…means more to me than you can imagine. Just remember that, okay? No matter what happens."

He placed his palms on either side of her chin and turned her face up towards him. "Doll…you got nothin' to worry about with me watchin' your back." He planted a kiss on top of her head, wrapping his arms around her. "Ya know it's moments like this, I know all that karma stuff is bull. No one like me should be this lucky…"

She sighed and pulled away just enough to look up at him again. "Would you stop it already? You're a _good man_ , John. You've helped a lot of people. And you've done more for me than I deserve..."

He caught her up in a kiss before she could say anything else. He ran his fingers back as far as they could go underneath her dreadlocked hair without hurting her, relishing her gun-oil and charcoal smell. She returned the kiss, running her fingers up over his frilled shirt, feeling the muscle beneath. He broke the kiss for a moment to lean down and scoop her up in his arms.

She let out a small squeal and wrapped her arms around his neck as he lifted her. "What are you doing?"

He smirked down at her as he made his way toward the little staircase. "Puttin' you to bed, love. Ya can't sweet talk me outta those 8 hours you promised."

As he placed her down onto her bed she immediately climbed off. He cocked a non-existent eyebrow. She motioned to her face in response. "Used to be a housewife - ya know - don't like to get my pillows dirty." She shrugged and padded over to a little bathroom adjacent to her bedroom. She turned on a dirty little faucet and bent over it, splashing the water on her face and smudging off the dark charcoal. She grabbed an old towel from a shelf and rubbed her face dry.

As she reemerged from the bathroom, Hancock couldn't help but let out a small laugh and cover his smile with a hand. She had a spattering of freckles across her cheeks that had been so well covered by the dirt and makeup that he had never noticed them before.

He took her hands and pulled her down onto the bed with him. He half-sat, folding his hands behind his head and leaning back against the wall. She lay on her side beside him, head propped on one arm. "What's so funny?"

He still couldn't hide that goofy smile. "Sorry love. Just never could turn down a dame with freckles." He booped her on the nose with a wrinkled finger. "S'cute."

Lilith blushed slightly, lowering her eyes and swiping some of her hair out of her face. She settled in closer to him, draping one arm over his chest and laying her head on part of the pillow that stuck out from behind his back. When she drifted to sleep, there were no nightmares. It was long and deep and sound.


	14. Musical Musings (Not a chapter)

So I've been interested in the music that other people have posted as their inspiration &/or soundtrack to their stories, and I have a little playlist (in addition to Diamond City Radio) that I've compiled that I find myself listening to on repeat while writing.

This list could get longer at any point but I'll try to provide descriptions for certain scenarios/moods the songs invoke. Thanks for reading, and feel free to give recommendations, I'm always down for new tunes!

1) Murder By Death - Until Morale Improves, The Beatings Will Continue

-This one has a special place in my heart as Lilith's illegitimate "theme song" in the Commonwealth. Even though this is set in the old west, it really sort of encompasses the pain and struggle she feels. Also this band is rad af and everyone should check them out.

2) Murder By Death - Three Men Hanging

-Another one that hits with feels. Check out the live version of this, it is A++. Whenever I imagine Lil doing something that will be painful for both her and John. A really good "walking away" song.

3) Portishead - Wandering Star

-Such a good sexy time band. This and Glory Box are two of my favorites, but this one hits for so many scenarios & is just so versatile.

4) Tom Waits - Downtown

-Ok so don't get me wrong, but I just completely picture Hancock being a Tom Waits kinda guy. This song is just...ugh. High as a kite, drunk too or maybe not, who knows, hangin' out and jammin to some bluesy, loungey, gravelly-voiced, I-Don't-Give-A-Fuck music and stumbling through the streets of Goodneighbor. Just, all the yes. All of it.

5) Tom Waits - Fumblin' With The Blues

-Another Hancock-ish theme song. I just...yep. These loungey ones are super good. Hangin' out in the Third Rail, if the Third Rail had a pool table. Does it? I cant remember.

6) Tom Waits - I Hope That I Don't Fall In Love With You

-Another one, moodier and ridiculously appropriate. Sorry raisin mayor, ilu.

7) Lou Reed - Perfect Day

-This is so opposite of the Commonwealth that it comes back around and fits perfectly. Scenes when they're hanging out in Sanctuary, or when they are being total badasses and destroying every monster as a team, works for both.

8) Stone Temple Pilots - Big Empty

-Such a perfect montage/road traveling song. Every time I think about them walking miles on end, I think of this one.

9) The Eels - I Need Some Sleep

-Another good one for Lilith. Sort of picture this in my mind during the Institute quest line, or rather, deciding how to deal with the Insitute. Also, she just doesn't sleep very well.

10) The Velvet Underground - Heroin

-Drugs. Love. Raw sound. Moody and high and down all at once.

11) Blue Foundation - Eyes on Fire

-Okay I know this is from Twilight and though I'm not a fan, what I've heard from the soundtracks of those movies is pretty damn good. This one is another moody, sexy, I-Might-Kill-You-Or-I-Might-Sex-You-Who-Knows song and I love it. I do hear this when I think about Institute quest lines.

12) Fever Ray - If I Had A Heart

-Another moody, female-vocals-driven song and I have such a boner for these, I am sorry. Another versatile one that could play during different scenes, but definitely a sexy-time scene for sure.

13) Lead Belly &/or Nirvana - Where Did You Sleep Last Night

-I love both recordings of this song. Nirvana's Live Unplugged version is really incredible (probably their best), and the whole thing just speaks to the New England setting. I know the origins of the song are muddled, but it sends chills up my spine always and makes me think of future plot lines.


	15. Chapter 14

**Agh sorry it took me so long to post an update folks, I went on vacation last week and wanted to post this chapter before I went but for some reason it was like pulling teeth trying to finish it. This is also the SIN everyone's been waiting for. Join me, my fellow ghoul trash, and follow me into hell. Let's see what happens!**

* * *

It was just past dusk as Lilith and Hancock made their way east toward the end of the small peninsula that housed the Castle. They snuck silently past the old South Boston High School, taking care not to tread too heavily. They had weapons clutched at the ready for every sound that reached them, and tried to stay as close to back alleys and any shadowed areas as they could.

Hancock stopped suddenly and motioned to her to look up ahead. A small derelict gas station was now the only building that stood between them and the dark, looming structure up the hill. His voice was low as he glanced over at her. "Lights on in there. That where we're supposed to meet?"

She squinted to read the rusty sign that stood atop the old store. "Ivan's. Yeah that's the place."

They made their way quickly to the gas station, peering through the windows stealthily first just to make sure. Lilith straightened up and pulled open a broken glass door, looking up to see the eyes of about a dozen Minutemen and Preston Garvey staring back at her.

Garvey gave her a salute and she was surprised to see the other men (and a few women) do the same. She faltered and returned a rather delayed salute to the room.

"Everyone's here, General." Preston motioned to the old crumbling building just beyond the gas station's busted out windows. "There it is. Pretty impressive, huh? It's real name is-"

"Fort Independence," Lilith distractedly interrupted him as she finally realized where they were. "God, I went on a tour of this place when I was in high school…" She looked around suddenly to see the Minutemen still staring at her, some with quizzical looks on their faces. She cleared her throat suddenly, swinging her attention back to Preston. "Sorry. Uh…continue."

Preston shrugged. "Can you see why I wanted to take it back? With a bit of work this place could be a really strong outpost."

Lilith stared at the large, crumbling hole in the wall of the fort that faced them. "Yeah…those walls could definitely use some work."

Preston nodded. "I'll admit, it's seen better days. But the Minutemen have never been afraid of hard work. Anyway…our primary objective is to clear the courtyard. That's where we should see the most opposition. The wall on this side _is_ the most exposed, but if we circle around south, we could also reach the main gate."

A man leaning up against the old shop counter interjected. "What are we waitin' for? Let's just get in there and shoot those lobstahs!"

A woman with short, dirty brown hair shook her head. "No. If we split up, we can flank them from both sides. It'll be like shooting fish in a barrel."

Preston nodded at both suggestions, then turned his gaze back to their slightly befuddled leader. "On the other hand, we could let them come to us. We set up a firing line on this side, and you can draw them out. What do you think?"

Lilith looked down, chewing her lip. "How many mines do we have?"

Preston tapped a bulging bag on the floor with his foot. "Plenty."

She nodded. "If those went off right beneath their bodies they could do a lot of damage…and the only way we can take them down with guns is to make sure we hit underneath the shell – legs, face, belly. We have to attack them head-on…"

She looked up suddenly, determination flickering in her eyes. "Alright. I'll go in, plant as many mines as I can…everyone else waits out here in the firing line. I'll kite as many of them as I can out through that blow-out in the wall. Hopefully the mines will take a few out as they come."

Hancock grabbed her arm. "Lil, that sounds like a damn suicide mission."

She turned and looked at him, her eyes steeled. "No…I can outrun them and that's the key element here. The hatchlings are faster, but the mines should take care of those. You and Preston are the best shots here, Hancock. I need you to hang back and be ready to shoot."

He grit his teeth a little bit as he acquiesced. She looked up into his eyes. "Please trust me. I'm not gonna die in there."

He nodded and flipped open the chamber of his sawed-off, loading in two fresh shells. Lilith removed the power fist from her arm and stashed it in her knapsack. She fingered the laser pistol that sat holstered at her hip, making sure the safety switch was off. She let out a heavy breath, looking around. She eyed the missile launcher Hancock had slung behind his back. "Try to hang on to that, John. We might need it."

His dark eyes glinted at her in the low light of the gas station. "You got it doll."

She looked back at Preston, then passed a glance around the room at the rest of the Minutemen.

Preston grabbed the bag full of mines and handed it to Lilith, then turned to the rest of the group. "Alright people, you heard the General. Let's move out."

They made their way out of the old gas station and proceeded quietly up the hill toward the fort. Hancock held her back for a moment, looking down at her. "You sure about this?"

She looked back at him. "No. Not in the slightest." She reached a hand up behind his neck and pulled him down into a kiss. She lingered with him there for a moment, trying to steel up her nerves.

When she went to pull away Hancock held her there a little longer, leaning his forehead down against hers, so that his hat almost tipped backwards off his head. "Don't you go dyin' on me, ya hear?"

She pulled away from him, knowing it was now or never. "Wouldn't dream of it."

She ran up the hillside away from him, glancing back once over her shoulder as she reached the little hillock of rubble that announced the blown-out wall. She reached into the bag of frag mines, retrieving one and sliding on the small power switch on the bottom.

She chewed her lip anxiously as she took a few tentative steps down over the blow-out and into the ruins of the fort. The radio tower rose from the center of the courtyard like some ancient skeletal limb reaching for the sky. She tip-toed around the perimeter of the courtyard in the eerie silence, dropping armed mines behind her as she went.

She felt a small tremor under her feet and looked up just in time to see a Mirelurk burst from the ground across the courtyard from her. She sucked in a breath and continued along her course as steadfastly as she could, dropping mine after mine. She could hear the wet sucking sound its jaws made as it tasted for a chemical trace in the air.

Lilith quickly skirted around a clutch of eggs, dropping a mine next to it as she went. Another rumble of the earth foreshadowed a second Mirelurk emerging on her other side, then a third directly between her and the exit. She cursed under her breath and inhaled deeply, trying to steady herself. Fumbling, she tied the mostly empty bag around her belt and took off running.

The Mirelurks produced a gurgled sort of whistling sound all at once, signaling to each other that they had spotted their prey. The giant crabs began following her, and the one blocking her path circled and turned on her with its huge claws held open.

She pulled the laser pistol from her hip and blasted toward the ground at its legs, trying to cripple it as she made a move to skirt to the side. The blast from the pistol seared one of it's spindly legs almost in half, and the top-heavy creature lunged at her faster than she expected just as another Mirelurk behind her had its guts blown out by one of the mines she'd planted.

Lilith did the only thing she could think of, covering her face with an arm and jumping out over the edge of the broken wall as the wounded Mirelurk tried to guillotine her leg. It barely missed her, but she landed hard in a cluster of thistle bushes and rolled across the ground a ways. She groaned and held her head in her hands as she heard the Minutemen begin firing on the mutated crustaceans that crested the hillock after her. She heard Garvey yell, "remember, aim for their eyes!"

She crawled a bit further through the grass with her head down, finally pulling herself up onto her feet and stumbling to pick her pistol up off the ground. Just as she turned, a grenade lit up the night around them as it engulfed two of the Mirelurks in flames. She squinted against the sudden brightness, advancing toward the line of Minutemen and bringing her pistol up to aim at another crab coming over the rubble. She put a few good shots into its undercarriage before she had to reload.

Hancock stepped out of the line a few feet, blasting some shotgun rounds into the Mirelurk's face to put it down. He paused, then lowered his gun as the only sound that remained was the crackling of their shells burning up in the fire.

Lilith stepped out in front of the line beside Hancock, and motioned for the Minutemen to follow them into the courtyard. "Start clearing out these egg clutches! Shoot them open or stomp them with your feet!"

Preston came up beside her. "The General and I will clear the inner walls."

She looked at Preston and nodded, following him over to a large carved out doorway that led them into the interior of the fort. They skirted through large, mildewy rooms and down long hallways that followed the perimeter of the fort all the way around. They took out several egg clutches and a few straggling Mirelurks.

Lilith put a hand against the cold stone wall to steady herself as the ground suddenly tremored again beneath them. This one was bigger. Lilith could actually feel the wall of the fort tremble under her hand.

Preston looked around. "What the hell was that!?"

They looked at each other briefly and bolted back down the dark hallway to another opening that led out to the courtyard. Lilith stopped in her tracks and tried her hardest not to let her legs give out beneath her as she gripped the stone doorway for support. "Oh…"

A gigantic Mirelurk reared up on the Minutemen that remained grouped in the courtyard. It looked like it had at least 10 legs, and its carapace was warped into an enormous, elongated dome to account for its size. All she could see was the monstrous shell, covered in mutated kelp and ancient fishing net. A loud, gurgled buzzing sound pierced the night as the Mirelurk Queen advanced on the Minutemen.

They began to scatter around the monster, running in all directions to try and get far enough away to take a few shots at the thing. It made a harsh clicking sound with its jaws and suddenly began to spray a putrescent, irradiated stream of acid from 2 large jets above its eyes.

Lilith ran out behind the creature, yanking the bag that held the last of the mines off her belt and began switching them on hurriedly, tossing them all along the ground between her and the huge monster. She screamed for the other Minutemen to take shelter inside the walls of the fort and lifted the laser pistol as the thing turned on her. A few blasts from Preston's laser musket shot past her and seared the monster's undercarriage.

Hancock herded some of the other Minutemen back behind the walls of the fort and stowed his shotgun, switching it out for the missile launcher.

Lilith tried to get off a few shots at the Mirelurk's legs, but she soon scrapped that idea and retreated back to the doorway where Preston stood, cranking the lever on the musket. As the Mirelurk attempted to follow her, it tripped a couple of the mines she had thrown and triggered a large series of explosions, the detonations setting off other nearby mines. She shielded her eyes against the light of the fire as other Minutemen began to take shots at the thing from various locations around the perimeter.

Hancock stepped back out into the courtyard, centering the missile launcher's sights on the Queen's underside. The recoil from the rocket caused him to stumble as it shot true and blew off a couple of the Mirelurk's legs. The thing let out a shrill sound and turned on him, still moving surprisingly fast as it began chasing him down.

Hancock managed to jump out of the way just in time before a burning stream of poison began eating away at the dirt where he had just stood. He rolled and stopped himself on his back, fumbling to fit another missile into the chamber of the launcher.

Lilith cursed and muttered and dumped her knapsack out on the ground in the doorway where she stood with Garvey. He was firing off another round of shots from the Musket. She hurriedly tried to sift through all the junk and meds and random crystal decanters and hot plates and finally found something. She shakily grabbed the single cryogenic grenade she had collected in her travels, looking up quickly to assess Hancock's situation.

He had the missile launcher back on his shoulder. She clutched the grenade and ran out into the courtyard, waving her arms and screaming to try and avert the Mirelurk's deadly march. "Hey, ya big ugly fucker!"

Hancock glanced up at her from the sight on the launcher. The Mirelurk was still coming up on him. Lilith jammed a button on the top of the grenade with her thumb and launched it at the Mirelurk. The little cylindrical device arced to the ground, bounced once, rolled under the Mirelurk's tail, and went off. A blast of dry ice vapor suddenly made a corona around the monster.

The Mirelurk slowed considerably as the grenade did its job, sending super-freezing tendrils of carbon dioxide up the creature's legs, where it seeped though its joints and began to freeze the juicy meat inside.

Hancock coughed a couple times from inhaling some of the vapors, but brought his eye back to the sights and launched another missile at the Mirelurk. The Minutemen who had retreated back to the relative safety of the doorways all took this opportunity to unload their ammunition on the Mirelurk as well, so that the undercarriage of the monster looked like a gooey, terribly off-colored smashed egg by the time they were finished.

The Mirelurk continued gurgling and making strange, shrill chirping sounds for a few more minutes, but it was immobile. What remained of its legs twitched and bent listlessly, and acid now only dribbled down over its face and jaws.

Lilith let out a strangled laugh and couldn't help doing a fist pump in the air. "We did it! Holy shit, we actually killed that thing!" She was about to go to Hancock to give him a hand up off the ground when Preston came up and clapped her on the back.

"Good work, General! That was incredible!"

She turned to him and grasped him in a tight hug, slapping him on the back in return. She heard some of the other Minutemen let out some whoops and cheers in the background. "Oh my God Preston, that _was_ incredible! Hey, will you go and make sure everyone is all right? Take any meds you can find from my bag."

Preston couldn't stifle his grin as he snapped her a salute. "Affirmative, General!"

She turned back towards where Hancock had been. He was on his feet now, limping towards her with the missile launcher slung over his shoulder. She grinned and ran over to him, but her smile fell away when she saw that a large portion of one of his pant-legs looked like it had been eaten away.

"John, are you alright?"

"Eh, I'll be fine. Got me with its juice when I tried to dodge it. Nasty bitch…"

Lilith led him over to where she had dropped her knapsack and began rummaging through the pile again. "I think I have some vinegar here…it might neutralize the burn. What the hell _was_ that thing?"

He set the missile launcher down against the wall so he could inject himself with a Stimpak. "Damn Mirelurk Queen. She was a big one, too. Probably the monster that's been nesting here for near on a decade now."

Lilith stood with a small glass bottle clutched in her hand and led him in under the doorway, towards the old General's quarters she and Preston had discovered earlier. "Let's get somewhere quiet so I can look at your leg…"

Hancock followed her into the large, drafty room. She pulled a chair out from under a large wooden desk and motioned for him to sit in it as she pushed the door closed. "Put your foot up?"

She twisted off the cap of the glass bottle as Hancock turned in the chair and swung his leg up on the old desk, grimacing. She fumbled to turn on the Pip-boy's flashlight, then gently prodded at the frayed edges of his pants.

His eyes never left her as she ripped off a piece of her shirt, wadding it up in one hand and using it as a dam to catch the excess vinegar that she poured over his leg. When the bottle was empty, she took the soaking rags and laid them over his leg to let it soak. "Is that helping at all?"

"Yeah…" He leaned forward, grabbed her around the waist and pulled her into his lap, wrapping his arms around her. He inhaled deeply and let out a small throaty groan. "You did a great goddamn job out there, sister…'scuse me if it's rude, but I'm hard as a fuckin' rock right now."

She blinked, swung around and looked at him. She couldn't help but adjust herself on his lap, which caused him to exhale another groan. "Whatever you're gonna do with that info, I suggest ya do it now…"

Without further hesitation, Lilith wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her mouth to his, knocking the tricorn off his head. He immediately squeezed his arms closer around her, arching his back up from the chair to return her kiss. She dragged a hand down the back of his neck, gripping his shoulder with her fingernails.

He growled low in his throat and reached his hands down to cup her butt, squeezing and standing and lifting her up into the air so she had no choice but to wrap her legs around his waist. He carried her a few steps over to the wall, pressing her back up against it.

Lilith let out a small moan when her back hit the wall. She could feel him pressing against her, and somewhere deep within her mind and deep within her spirit, a barrier was broken. She broke away from the kiss to take a deep breath, and at the same time she bucked her hips against him, sliding her hands around to the front of his waist and finding purchase on the tattered American flag sash tied around it.

Hancock leaned his forehead against hers while he took a few deep breaths, smirking as Lilith fumbled to untie the sash. She threw it off in the corner and immediately reached back down to undo the buttons on his pants.

"Mmm…" Hancock rumbled against her, curling his hands deeper around her backside. After what felt like forever, she finally undid the last button and shoved her hand inside his pants, grasping him in her fist and grinding against him.

He buried his face in her neck, using only his body to hold her against the wall as he blindly began to remove her armor. He tossed the chest plate and then the two spaulder pieces to the side and ran his hands up under her layers of shirts, pulling them up and encouraging her to lift her arms so he could pull them off. She acquiesced readily, then pushed his coat off his shoulders in turn once his hands were free.

He shrugged the coat off and wrapped his hands back underneath her, spinning them around and carrying her to the bed in the corner of the room. He pressed her down against the creaky old mattress, running a hand up from underneath her to the front of her pants, effortlessly undoing the clasp on her utility belt and letting it fall to the ground.

She bucked her hips into the air again to allow him to pull her trousers down her legs, after which he promptly tossed them aside and dove back down to meet her mouth with his. He trailed both hands down her sides, pulling her hips up against his tantalizingly. Lilith let out a moan against his lips, and he practically lost it.

"Ah fuck…" He jerked his pants down and pulled her toward the edge of the bed where he could get some leverage. He reached down and pushed the thin fabric of her panties aside, pressing his fingers against her clit and rubbing a couple times before pushing them inside her.

She gasped and bucked against him again, gripping for purchase at the sleeves of his shirt. He smirked against her mouth while continuing to tease her with his hand. She groaned and reached up to the front of his shirt, pulling it open and dragging her hands down his scarred chest, all the way down until she found what she was looking for.

He growled against her again and she shivered, panting. "John…" She bit her lip and grabbed his shoulders, pulling him down onto the bed beside her and climbing on top of him. Her dreadlocks had come undone from the makeshift bun she had set them in and they cascaded around her shoulders as she pinned him down with one hand, using the other to position him underneath her.

Hancock smirked, arching his back and wrapping his hands around her hips. He pulled her down onto his swollen erection and watched every detail of her face as she gasped and threw her head back. He ran his tongue across his teeth and closed his eyes momentarily. Fuck, she felt good.

Lilith groaned and looked back down at him as she began moving in concert with his hands, grinding her hips against him as he pulled her. She placed one of her hands against the wall to give herself some stability, closing her eyes and letting the tension and fear from the day – hell, from the whole of the past 9 months – channel itself into their fevered sex. Lilith cried out as he pulled her down hard suddenly, arching his back at the same time to push himself deeper inside her.

"Ah, Lilith, you're fuckin' gorgeous…"

She bit her lip again and looked down at him through lidded eyes as she rode him, feeling wild, tantric and tempestuous all at the same time. She could see in his eyes the effect she was having on him, and it was driving her crazy. After everything that had happened already and everything that was still to come, she couldn't help but feel grateful that she had met someone like him. No matter what happened.

One of his hands left her hip to slide down between her legs. He nuzzled his hand in between them and gently began massaging her clit with his thumb. The sensation drove a low moan and his name from her lips and Hancock purred his approval in reply.

She scrunched her face and dragged her nails down his chest, trying to suppress the orgasm that was quickly approaching and failing miserably. Lilith's small moans grew louder and the bucking of her hips grew more erratic, and as she came and her muscles clenched around him agonizingly, Hancock couldn't help but follow suit.

He leaned up and wrapped her in his arms, pulling her back down with him and planting a kiss on her forehead. "Lookit you…I must be dreamin'…"

She let out a small chuckle between her efforts to catch her breath. Her face was flushed, and it still burned slightly – she had received several small, stinging lacerations from the thistle bush she'd rolled through earlier. "That was…pretty amazing. Glad you're not just a peacock in the streets." She smirked.

He chuckled and shook his head. "Total package, babe. See what you've been missin'?"

She shook her head and rolled off of him, standing up to clean herself up a bit and put some of her clothes back on. Hancock leaned over on his side, studying her. He cleared his throat. "You might wanna think about takin' some of your Radaway. Ya know, just in case…"

She blinked and paused briefly in the middle of hiking her panties back up her legs. She had never really thought about the possible side effects that would come from teaming up with a ghoul. The slight ticking of her Geiger counter whenever they were close had never been loud enough to drown out the crazy thoughts she had when she was in his proximity.

She reached down for her utility belt and grabbed a pill from the bottle nestled in one of the pockets. After she had taken it, she grabbed a tank top from her pile of clothes on the floor. "Shit, I should go check on everyone, they must-"

"Hey. They can take care of themselves. Garvey can handle it. Get back in this bed and relax. That's a direct order from your mayor."

Her mouth twitched into a small smile and she acquiesced without an argument, padding back to the bed to rejoin him.


	16. Chapter 15

Very very early the next morning, before the sun had begun to shed what light it could on the wasteland of the Commonwealth, Lilith stumbled through a sparse, deadened forest on the edge of old South Boston.

She hugged herself tightly, her laser pistol dangling from one hand. She was trying to tread as quietly as she could, but every once in a while her shoulders would hitch and a small sob escaped her. Her charcoal eye makeup had begun to streak down her cheeks, creating a Rorschach mask of her face.

"Halt! This area is under martial law by order of Provisional Governor Graham! Chinese infiltrators are known to be operating in this area!"

The authoritative voice from off to her right stopped her suddenly in her tracks. She swung around and aimed the pistol at the offender. A Mr. Gutsy hovered towards her, its miniature flamethrowers puffing out small warning jets of fire.

"Please provide proof of your identity! Be advised that I am authorized to use _deadly force_ if you fail to comply!"

Lilith's mouth fell open slightly. A smug look crossed her weary face. She sniffled and wiped her nose with the back of the hand that held the laser pistol. "Go fuck yourself you crazy robot."

"Analyzing. American colloquialism confirmed. Probability of use by Chinese infiltrator: zero-point-three percent. Thank you! Report any suspected Communists to the proper authorities _immediately_! Have a nice day."

And with that, the ancient Mr. Gutsy turned on its jets and returned in the direction from whence it had come. She stared after the robot for a few moments, feeling slightly surprised that the thing hadn't roasted her alive where she stood.

All of a sudden everything hit her. She crumpled and fell to her knees, a loud sob escaping her. She balled her fists up against her face, the pistol still clutched in one hand, and cried.

* * *

Hancock awoke that morning feeling surprisingly good. He didn't know exactly when he'd drifted off, but Lilith's intoxicating embrace had lulled him into a sense of calm he had not experienced in what felt like a very long time. He rolled over in the old General's bed and felt for her in the spot beside him. When his hand touched the cold sheet, his eyes shot open and he looked around. "Lil?"

There was no reply because he was alone. He sighed and rolled over onto his back, looking up at the mildewy stone ceiling. He had no doubt she was just outside, mingling with her soldiers and chatting with Preston Garvey about their next move; maybe helping them get that radio transmitter up and running again.

Hancock took his time getting dressed, stretching his skinny but lithe body, cracking his back and his neck, and checking the number of toes that remained on his feet before pulling on his scuffed leather boots.

When he exited the old General's quarters and walked out into the courtyard of the fort, he did see several of the Minutemen milling about; some were working on a couple of old generators to get them up and running, while others had formed a work detail to check on the status of the radio tower. One woman had climbed halfway up the tower already and was checking an electrical box. Hancock spied Preston by the jockey's desk at the base of the tower and strode toward him.

Preston looked up from some old mechanical schematics he'd been going over with one of the Minutemen. He apologized and excused himself when the ghoul walked up to him, putting a hand on his shoulder and pulling him aside. "Hancock. Please tell me the General was gracious enough to tell _you_ where she had urgent business to attend. Because she certainly didn't tell me."

Hancock's brow furrowed. "Whaddaya mean? She's not out here helping you?"

Preston shook his head. "One of the guards we posted last night caught her leaving very early this morning. She only told him she needed an early start on 'urgent business' and he let her pass because she said that both of us knew about it..."

Hancock, for one of the very few times in his life, was caught speechless. His thoughts flew in a thousand directions _. She was playin' me all along/this is some fucked up joke, right?/I was never good enough for her, she just finally realized it/she didn't just run to the corner to buy some eggs/she ran off to that damn smooth talker Deacon who runs with the Railroad/she's trying-_

"She's tryin' to get to the Institute by herself. _Fuck_! Ah, you stupid…you _stupid-!_ " Hancock clenched his fists and ground his teeth to keep from calling her all sorts of bad names, hurt and unbelieving.

Preston looked on, confused. "But she said she wanted our help to build a teleporter. Isn't that the only way in?"

Hancock shook his head, shrugging his shoulders and throwing his hands up in the air. "I fuckin' thought so! Look Garvey, I know you wanna get this place up and runnin' again but we gotta find her. I told her I was gonna stick with her…I fuckin' told her I was gonna watch her back! I…" He clamped his mouth shut before he could finish yelling that he loved her, choosing instead to viciously punt a Mirelurk egg that lay cracked on the ground beside them.

Preston sighed. He was just as concerned as Hancock was at her sudden disappearance, but he knew Lilith could be stubborn and standoffish and, because he had never travelled with her outside of their first trip to Sanctuary, he was accustomed to her coming and going whenever she damn well pleased.

"Well I suppose I could send some folks out to scout, but she's got a good head start on us, Hancock. And she could be anywhere. You two have been travelling together. Don't you have some idea of what her plan might be?"

Hancock tried to calm himself down and think the situation through. "She made plans with the Railroad first. I know where their hideout is; it's not far from Goodneighbor. I guess that's the best direction to start in, isn't it?" He gave Preston a very un-Hancock-like, imploring look; a desperate look.

Preston was starting to wonder if there wasn't more going on between the mayor of Goodneighbor and his General. He saw the look in the ghoul's eyes, and though he had never been a fan of the man based on loose talk and rumors, he knew then that Hancock's devotion to the woman was very real.

For the first time, Preston was astonished that Lilith could do something as cruel and selfish as this. They had all worked so hard to help her and be a source of support for her in this new uncharted territory she was experiencing, and though she had stepped up admirably to the tasks at hand, it seemed that she had now forsaken both her companion and her post as General of the Minutemen.

* * *

Ellie Perkins looked up from her desk as she heard a gentle knock on the front door of Valentine's Detective Agency. When the woman from the vault appeared in the entryway, a broad smile crossed her face and Ellie immediately stood to greet her.

"Ms. Lilith! It's so wonderful to see you again!" She pulled Lilith into a hug.

Lilith smiled and returned the girl's embrace, though her face was drawn and weary. She had stopped by Sheng's little water treatment shack and bought some water to wash her face with so she didn't look like a crazy person wandering around Diamond City, but her eyes still felt sore and swollen from crying and she was pretty sure she still looked like garbage.

"It's nice to see you too, Ellie. I came to see Nick. Is he around…?"

Ellie nodded. "He's upstairs, doing some work. I'm sure he'd love to see you though. Go on up."

Lilith thanked her and headed into the little back room that angled beside and behind the door. She climbed up the narrow staircase and saw Nick's form emerge over the edge of the floor above. He was engrossed in his work at his computer terminal but he immediately looked over at the sound of the stairs creaking underneath her weight.

She saw his bright electric yellow irises at full capacity when his eyes widened. "Lil!"

She couldn't help but feel a rush of relief. She took the last few stairs at a runner's pace and barreled into his arms as he stood up, almost making him stumble. "Nick! I'm so sorry…I'm so sorry I didn't come to see you sooner…I'm sorry for the way I acted in Goodneighbor-"

Nick shook his head and couldn't help but chuckle as he held her there for a moment. "Hey kid, it's alright. You'll be happy to know I haven't had any recurring 'mnemonic impressions' since then…but it's alright."

Lilith couldn't help the word vomit that followed. Even though she hadn't seen Nick in months, it was like running into the arms of her father again. "It's not alright though. I did a terrible thing! I've done such horrible, miserable things…"

Nick gently guided her down into the chair he'd just vacated and knelt beside her, keeping a hand on her shoulder. "Whoa kid, slow down. What's goin' on? Did you find your son?"

She shook her head, looking up at him. "I've been traveling with John Hancock for a while…and I asked Desdemona and the Railroad to build this teleporter that will send me into the Institute. But I…I left him, Nick. I left all of them without telling them the Railroad was already building the machine…"

"You left Hancock? And who? I don't understand, kid. Take a deep breath."

She did as he asked, closed her eyes for a moment, then tried to begin again. "John and I have gotten…very close. He came with me to the coast to help Preston and the Minutemen clear out their old stronghold, the old Fort Independence. I told them when we finished, we would all go and help build the machine together…I lied to them because I couldn't…because I knew I had to go to the Institute alone. And I can't put them in that kind of danger. I can't do that to any of you…"

Nick frowned. "Soo you ran off in the night without telling them. And came here? Why tell _me_?"

She shrugged listlessly. "I _had_ to see you, Nick. I had to say that I was sorry before I go. I just couldn't…say goodbye to the others." She looked up at him, fear welling deep in her eyes. "I don't know what's going to happen to me…and I couldn't bring myself to say goodbye. And if they tried to follow me – if John tried to come with me - the Institute _would_ come after them…after Goodneighbor, after the Minutemen." She shook her head. "I can't let that happen."

"Hmm…I suppose I can see the predicament. I don't wanna tell ya I think you handled it the wrong way, but…"

"I know, I know…" She reached up and began rolling one of her dreadlocks back and forth between her fingers, almost squeezing it like an old pre-war stress ball. "And that's one of the reasons I wanted to stop and see you before I go. I wanted to talk to you, but I realized I need to ask you to do something for me."

"Hey doll, don't forget you saved my synthetic rear end from Skinny Malone's gang. As far as I'm concerned, I still owe you one."

She gave him a weak half-smile, but nodded. "If you see John…I need you to tell him how sorry I am. I need to try and find Shaun, but I'm bringing the biggest weight in the Commonwealth aside from the Brotherhood down on my own ass. I'm not going to bring it down on anyone else's. I think I probably hurt him real bad with this one, Nick. I just want him to know that I…that I'm so, _so_ sorry…"

Nick sighed and nodded. "I'll make sure he gets the message."

She nodded, pulled him into another tight hug, then stood up and cleared her throat. "I should get going…"

Nick stood and placed a hand on her shoulder again before she turned toward the stairs. "Good luck, kid. I know the odds may look slim, but keep your chin up. I've got faith in you."


	17. Chapter 16

"So, stand still! Gotta lock in all those molecules of yours! Hopefully we won't miss any…! There's only, ya know, 60 trillion of them…!" Tinker Tom yelled to Lilith as she stood on the teleporter pad in the center of the giant array of pylons and generators. He was about 30 feet away from her, punching buttons and throwing levers on a large makeshift computer console he had constructed.

"All right! Feeding our baby some juice. Let's see what she's got!"

Lilith's head whipped back and forth and she raised her arm to shield her eyes when the pylons started throwing off bright blue sparks of electricity, casting erratic light all over the outside of the Mercer Safehouse.

"Oh, man. Don't worry! That's…all part of the plan. I think I got it! Establishing lock on the Institute signal…"

Suddenly Lilith's focus turned from the overwhelming sound of the crackling electricity and the grumbling generators to Desdemona, who stood yelling to her through cupped hands from several feet away. "Do whatever you can to gain their trust! Lie, tell them what they want to hear! Make up a cover story and sell it! Just get all the information you can; about synths, about the Institute's plans! You jack that holotape into any terminal, and Patriot will make contact! He has to!"

All of a sudden the flaring blue light from the electricity brightened significantly, blinding Lilith. She cried out and cowered, shielding her face with both arms now. Desdemona's voice only reached her faintly. "Find a way to save them! Nobody else can."

* * *

Hancock stalked into the back room of the Third Rail and immediately caught the eyes of the lone man who sat in a chair against the wall. He wore a tattered tan duster and a green army cap. He had been cleaning under his nails with a combat knife, but he slid it back into a sheath on the inside of his coat when Hancock walked toward him.

"Hancock."

"MacCready." Hancock looked around to ensure they were alone in the room. "You still a merc for hire or are you just usin' my hospitality to hide from the Gunners down here?"

MacCready's eyes narrowed. "I'm between jobs at the moment. Why? Goodneighbor finally starting to turn on you? Need a bodyguard?"

"Very funny. Don't take it personal if I don't laugh. I got a job that needs doing. You want the caps or what?"

MacCready leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "You know I won't do anything for less than 250. What's the job?"

"Call it a 'search and rescue' mission. I'm lookin' for somebody who's…missing. A woman. I need you to go out, keep your ear to the ground, see if you can find any info on her whereabouts."

MacCready smirked. "Some dame run off with your stash?"

Hancock glared at him from under the brim of the tricorn. The light was low and smoky in the room, and he certainly looked nothing less than menacing. "Trust me, I'd be out lookin' for her myself but I've exhausted most of my options and Fahrenheit's been up my ass about catchin' up on things here. My hands are tied for the moment. But this woman, Lilith…she's the woman from the Vault. The General of the Minutemen. You've heard of her."

MacCready nodded. "Yeah, I've heard some rumors. She's missing, huh? Institute probably got her."

"Yeah. That's the thought." Hancock was wary of revealing too much information to the merc. He'd been hanging around Goodneighbor for a while now, and everyone knew he had turned tail on the Gunners, but Hancock really did not know much about the man, or how much he could be trusted. "But this ain't a normal disappearance. And I ain't willin' to believe the Institute will kill her. So I need you to go out there, keep an eye on the horizon and an ear to the ground. Ya dig?"

MacCready thought for a few moments. This was a fairly daunting task Hancock was presenting him with, and he had always promoted himself as a hired gun – not a detective. "I'll do it, but it's not gonna be cheap. This sounds like a lot of time and effort you're talkin' about."

Hancock pulled a fat bag of caps out from inside his coat and tossed it into MacCready's lap. "How's 500 sound to start? You go out there, and let me know as soon as you hear anything. Anything about the woman from the vault, or the General of the Minutemen, or a woman wandering around by herself who somebody might take for a raider…or that same woman wandering around with a kid, maybe ten years old or so. Got it?"

MacCready nodded, weighing the bag in his hand. "I got it…boss."

* * *

Lilith felt an immense pressure of gravity pulling her body down. She thought she could feel her bones compressing, and she pressed her palms to her eyes in an agony of pain as a bright light blinded her. Thankfully it only lasted for a few seconds before dimming and going out. All the hairs on her body felt like they were standing on end, but as the energy generated by the teleporter dissipated, the static saturating her body began to lessen and she felt her gravity going back to normal.

After she had composed herself, she exited the small round room she had appeared in and looked around, swallowing a heavy lump in her throat and fingering the pistol at her hip. The place was extremely sterile-looking, all hard angles and whitewashed walls. Several advanced-looking computers and switchboards adorned the perimeter.

Lilith gasped and bit her lip to stop from shrieking in surprise as a man's voice came on over hidden loudspeakers.

"Hello. I wondered if you might make it here. You're quite resourceful. I am known as Father; the Institute is under my guidance."

Lilith made her way through the room and down a staircase. A cylindrical elevator was the only exit.

"I know why you're here. I'd like to discuss things with you, face-to-face. Please, step into the elevator."

She took a tentative step toward the clear glass tube, and it automatically slid open to allow her access. She stepped inside, the tube closed again, and the elevator began a slow descent.

"I can only imagine what you've heard…what you think of us. I'd like to show you that you may have…the wrong impression. Welcome to the Institute."

Suddenly the walls opened up and Lilith was gifted with an expansive view of what looked like a massive underground silo. The whole building appeared to be cylindrical, and walkways skirted around the perimeter, making a slow climb around it. She could see people everywhere, going about their business. Some held guns; as the elevator descended lower she could see that they were synths. Her hand still rested on the pistol at her hip and she made no effort to move it.

"This is the reality of the Institute. This place, these people, the work we do. For over a hundred years, we've dedicated ourselves to humanity's survival. Decades of research, countless experiments and trials… A shared vision of how science can help shape the future. It has never been easy, and our actions are often misinterpreted by those above ground. Someday, perhaps, we can show them what we've accomplished. But for now, we must remain underground."

The elevator finally came to a stop at the entrance to another whitewashed hallway. Lilith exited the elevator and made her way into the hall. Flawless chrome diagnostic tools sat perched atop rollaway tables, and garish yellow paint striped the walls at eye level.

"There's too much at stake here to risk it all. As you've seen, things above are…unstable. I'd like to talk to you about what we can do…for everyone."

The hallway turned at an angle and Lilith came into a room with another elevator.

"But that can wait. You are here for a specific, very personal reason. You are here for your son."

Lilith looked up and around at the walls, her brow furrowing. She stepped into the elevator and pressed the large red button on a pad fixed to the wall. The doors slid closed and the elevator brought her back up a few floors. When the doors opened, she exited into a room that contained what appeared to be a large glass-walled cell. A young boy sat on the floor inside the cell, facing away from her.

She approached the cell, walking up and putting her hands against the glass. "Sh-Shaun…?"

"Huh?" The boy looked over his shoulder, startled. He got to his feet. "Yes, I'm Shaun…"

"Shaun? Oh my god, it's really you…"

The boy took a step away from the glass, eyeing her warily. "Who are you?"

She bit her lip. "Shaun, it's me. I'm…I'm your mom."

"Father… What's going on? What's happening?"

Lilith dropped to her knees in front of the glass, shaking her head. "Shaun, are you okay? You're not hurt, are you?"

"What's going on? Father? Father!"

"Shhh! It'll be okay, Shaun! Mommy's here now…"

"I don't know you! Go away! Father! Father, help me! There's someone here! Help me!"

She balled her fists up, trying to hold back the tears stinging her eyes. "Who is Father!? Where is he?"

"Father! Help me, she's trying to take me!"

Lilith beat her fist on the glass, and suddenly a door on the wall adjacent to the cell slid open and a silver-haired man in a green sweater and a pristine white lab coat stepped into the room.

"Shaun…S9-23 Recall Code Cirrus."

At the man's words, Shaun's body suddenly slumped and his chin fell to his chest. Lilith sucked in a breath and jumped to her feet, pulling her pistol out of its holster and aiming it at the man. Her hand was shaking, but she made an effort to steady it.

"Fascinating…but disappointing. The child's responses were not at all what I anticipated. He's a prototype, you understand. We're only just now beginning to explore the effects of extreme emotional stimuli." The old man continued talking, completely unaffected by the gun being held in his face.

He did hold his hands up palms out in an attempt at reassurance. "Please try and keep an open mind. I recognize that you are emotional, and that your journey here has been fraught with challenges. Let's start anew. I am Father. Welcome to the Institute."

Lilith kept the gun pointed at his head. "Give me Shaun. The real Shaun. Right. Now."

"I know, I know. You've gone to such lengths to find him. I promised answers, and answers you shall have. But, I need you to realize that this…situation…is far more complicated than you could have imagined. Your tenacity and dedication _have_ been rewarded. I am…your son."

* * *

Hancock sat at his desk, compulsively clicking the push-button on the end of a pen. A huge pile of documents sat before him, but he just could not find the ambition to sort through them, make notes, or sign the ones that needed signing. All he could think about was Lilith. He sighed and tossed the pen down on the desk, reaching for his 20th cigarette that day.

He had sought out the help of the Railroad as soon as he'd left the Castle, but what little help they could offer him was not enough. The signal interceptor had almost completely fallen apart after they'd managed to send Lilith on her way; and though Desdemona told him they had confirmed that Lilith had made indirect contact with a mole nicknamed 'Patriot' inside the Institute, there was no way for them to directly contact her to check on her status.

Desdemona had no idea that Hancock had always meant to accompany Lilith on her journey, and she had seemed sincere when she said that the device was only theorized to be able to transport one person at a time. Their haphazard construction was nowhere near the complexity and efficiency of the technology the Institute was using, and she said they had been thoroughly surprised that the teleporter had even worked at all.

So that left him with no foreseeable options other than pulling in every favor he had with anyone for any information they could find. MacCready had left town the previous day with no real destination in mind. Hancock had simply shrugged his shoulders, telling him to search as widely and safely as he could, asking any settlers he encountered what they might know until somebody had an answer.

Since he had started developing feelings for Lilith he had wished it would stop. She was aloof and evasive, but there had always been something there…something he had seen in her. Deep down inside he was sure there was a strong, incredible human being, but so much had happened to her. So much had changed her.

Hancock was disturbed from his thoughts when Fahrenheit opened the door to his office. "John. You've got a visitor. Have another distraction from your mayoral duties." She was growing more irritated with him by the day, but he didn't know what to tell her. He was surprised to see Nick Valentine enter the room when Fahrenheit stepped aside.

"Valentine?"

Nick walked over to Hancock's desk and lit a cigarette. Fahrenheit pulled the door closed behind him to give them some privacy. Hancock popped a Mentat and leaned back in his chair.

"Hello, John. Not interrupting anything, am I?"

Hancock shook his head, motioning dismissively to the stack of papers on his desk. "Nothin' important."

Nick took a seat on the corner of the desk and tapped the ash from his cigarette into an overflowing ashtray. "Lil stopped by my office a couple days ago." He looked at Hancock.

John immediately sat up in his chair. "What did she tell you?"

"She told me to tell you she was sorry."

John blinked. "That's it?"

"Well, that's the gist of it. Listen, John. She knows she botched up whatever was goin' on with the two of you. Whatever ya might be thinkin' of doing, I'd suggest you don't. Just sit tight. If she gets out of the Institute, she'll come back and find you."

Hancock's eyes narrowed. "That ain't good enough, Valentine. Not that there's much I _can_ do, but…" He sighed. "I can't just sit here in Goodneighbor and wait. It's the goddamn Institute!"

Nick nodded. "I know. So what? You got no way of getting in there. She told me she didn't want you or Preston _or_ me following her because she didn't wanna bring the heat down on anybody else's head. It makes sense, John. The Institute is already after the Railroad. It was the most logical decision for her to ask for their help."

"Then why didn't she tell me that!?" Hancock could still recall the fight they'd had in Cambridge, but he thought they'd gotten past that…he was sure of it the night they'd had sex. He had just gone on blindly, hoping against hope that some miracle would jet her son back into the Commonwealth for her to find one day, and they could have some kind of a happy ending.

Nick shrugged. "She just said she couldn't. I guess she was scared that she might never see you again. I know it sounds pretty backwards John, but the kid really does care about you."

Hancock sighed and stood up. "Let's go have a drink, Valentine. I know I need one."


	18. Chapter 17

Lilith stood in the shower in her private room inside the Institute. She let the water course over her scarred and bruised body, relishing in the feeling. She had taken at least two showers a day while underground. Her thoughts wandered in several different directions here, where she finally had some privacy from the watchful eyes of the synths that patrolled the hallways and the scientists that didn't trust her.

She had made contact with Patriot, the Railroad's secret source of intelligence inside the Institute. She had found access to the ancient FEV labs deep beneath the facility, managing to acquire the serum that could potentially cure Virgil's Super Mutant mutations. Shaun had even gifted her with a small personal device similar to what the Coursers had implanted in their brains that allowed her to teleport freely in and out of the facility, placing a great deal of trust in her.

Shaun…she was still coming to terms with the fact that her baby had been locked away inside this pristine prison for 60 years. He had become what the Institute had molded him into; there was nothing in him that reminded her of Nate, but what she saw that reminded her of herself was terrifying. He was so confident in his cause and his long-term 'solution' that he paid no heed to the welfare of those currently living in the Commonwealth. He had no sympathy for the families he had destroyed by snatching up people in the night and replacing them with robotic copies. There was no sympathy for the synths who had developed a very real sense of self-awareness and who were consequently captured and wiped clean of their memories. Shaun had never ventured above ground to get an outside perspective on the choices he had made; he had been completely brainwashed.

Lilith sighed and pressed a button on the wall that shut off the water. She stepped out of the shower stall and began to dry herself and dress. She had a meeting with Shaun in a few minutes. It was difficult trying to act as a spy for the Railroad – it meant having to work with Shaun on his 'synth retention' projects, which bothered her greatly.

When she finally entered Shaun's quarters, he was there waiting for her. "Ah, hello mother. Tell me, what would you do when someone has stolen from you?"

She stopped short, slightly taken aback. Her eyes narrowed slightly. "After everything I've been through to find you? I think you already know…"

He looked thoughtful for a moment. "I'm sorry, mother. Of course, you're right. You see, the group that calls themselves 'the Railroad' has acquired several synths from the Institute, synths that had gone missing in recent months. They no doubt mean to 'free' these synths, in their delusion that synths are somehow sentient beings. You've been in contact with the Railroad, so you're aware of their misguided beliefs."

Lilith looked up at him. "They mean well, Shaun; they're only doing what they think is right."

Shaun dismissed her. "Usually they are a minor nuisance, but lately they have become more emboldened. I'm afraid we've reached a point where a response is necessary. We have learned the current location of these synths, and need to re-acquire them before the Railroad can hide them."

Lilith folded her arms. "Not sure why you'd bother…"

"Aside from taking back our property, we must teach them a lesson, as it were. And quickly, at that. There will be a Courser waiting for you near Bunker Hill. Please find him before barging in." With that curt order, Shaun turned his back on Lilith. He was obviously done talking.

She chewed her lip as a few good reprimands came to mind, but she pushed them back. In order to help the Railroad, she had to stay on his good side. She turned and left his quarters without another word.

* * *

Hancock looked up through a haze of smoke as a frantic knocking began at the door of his office. He threw his head back on his shoulders and spun around in his rolling chair, using his feet to kick himself away from the desk and towards the obnoxious sound. He took a drag from a cigarette and gave the door handle a loose turn, so that it came open on whoever was knocking.

MacCready stumbled through the door mid-knock, the forward momentum of his arm propelling him into the room. Hancock suddenly straightened up in his chair, the cigarette dangling from the scarred skin of his lip. "D'ja find somethin'?"

MacCready regained his balance and veered on Hancock. He suddenly coughed and waved a hand in front of his face. "God, Hancock what is wrong with you? I think I'm contact high already…"

Hancock stood, kicking the chair out from beneath him and sending it skidding across the floor and into the wall. He stalked forward and grabbed MacCready by the collar of his shirt, pulling him in close. "What did you find?"

MacCready peeled Hancock's clawed hands away from his collar. "There's somethin' big going down up in Bunker Hill. I think your girl might be involved."

John's eyes narrowed in confusion. "Bunker Hill? What would they want with Bunker Hill!? We gotta get over there." He turned on his heel, stalking back to his desk and grabbing the trusty sawed off; he never let it out of arm's reach these days. He threw a couple ammo belts full of shells over his shoulder and pulled MacCready toward the door. "Let's go."

It was several hours before Hancock and MacCready finally made it across the river. As they headed north, they could already hear heavy gunfire and the loud thrumming of Vertiberds flying overhead.

Hancock yelled at MacCready over the cacophony. "You sure she's at Bunker Hill? This looks like tin-can business to me!"

MacCready unslung his sniper rifle from his shoulder, peering around. "I talked to some settlers just southwest of here – some weird cult; Pillars of the Community or something – couple of 'em said they saw a woman come out of thin air! Just appeared in the street outside their camp! She had long dreadlocks and black makeup smudged on her face, and she was heading north! They were scared cause she looked like a raider! That sound like your girl?"

Hancock scowled and cursed under his breath. He sighed and racked the shotgun with a swift and practiced jerk of his arm. He held the gun at the ready in front of him and began the trek through the decrepit streets towards the ruined monument that poked at the sky from behind several buildings.

MacCready followed close behind, eyes constantly searching the buildings and alleys above and to either side of them. He kept the sniper rifle at the ready, finger steady on the trigger. "You sure about this, Hancock? That's a lot of gunfire. If the Brotherhood and the Institute have started their war…well your girl may not have been dead before, but she might be now."

"Shut up."


	19. Chapter 18

Lilith dove over the cement counter of a stall in the market section of Bunker Hill, crunching herself up into the corner and flinching as a couple of laser blasts melted pieces of the wall above her. She shoved some fusion cells into the Institute laser rifle Shaun had gifted her with and tried to catch her breath at the same time.

She crawled over to the edge of the cement slab and peered around it. Several Brotherhood of Steel soldiers heavily geared in Power Armor were well on their way to mowing down a battalion of synths who had appeared as backup for her Courser 'partner,' X4-18. Not so much a partner as he was a babysitter, she could see him out in the fray as well, pulling a BOS soldier down to the ground and shooting right through the visor on the front of his helmet until the body lay still, and the helmet almost melted in two.

Lilith turned around, her mind racing as she tried to figure out what her next move was. Suddenly her eyes rested on a rusty steel hatch in the floor right in front of her. Not a floor safe, but an actual hatch. She scrambled over to it and used all her strength to raise the heavy door. When she managed to wrench the hatch all the way up so that it stood vertical, she slipped down inside.

* * *

MacCready had left Hancock alone to find a good sniping position from one of the taller nearby buildings. The ghoul slunk around the outskirts of Bunker Hill, keeping near the tall fence that spanned the perimeter of the little settlement. He stumbled backwards suddenly as the body of a synth crashed through the fence right in front of him. He heard some fuses popping and saw small electrical sparks shooting from the sizzling body but it lay still.

He cautiously peered through the hole in the fence, and was about to shrug back behind it to keep his cover when movement from the corner of his eye caught his attention. He saw long dark auburn hair for just a moment before it disappeared behind a wall.

"Lil!" He shouldered his way through the hole in the fence and ran after the figure he had seen. A laser blast stopped him in his tracks and he turned almost too late to see a BOS soldier barreling towards him.

"Ad Victori-" Hancock heard the man shouting the banner of the Brotherhood, but he was cut short as a .50 calibur sniper shot blew a hole through the steel of his helmet and his skull. The goliath suit of Power Armor plowed to the ground at Hancock's feet. He glanced briefly up at the buildings behind him and tipped his tricorn, then continued on into the market.

* * *

Lilith ran through crumbling, labyrinthian hallways that brought her deeper and deeper below ground. She encountered no opposition for most of the trek, but before long she could hear laser blasts and explosions emanating from some sort of open chamber up ahead. When she finally reached an opening she tried to stay behind as much cover as she could while she peered out around the wall.

On the opposite side of the large chamber a number of Railroad heavies stood behind a sandbag wall, opening fire on the BOS soldiers that assaulted them from some opening underneath where Lilith was standing. Two machinegun turrets were set up on the platform where the heavies were, rapid-firing bullets alongside them.

Lilith's only advantage lay in the fact that the Railroad was keeping the Brotherhood, and shortly the Institute synths, occupied. She knew now that the escaped synths the Railroad was protecting had to be further underground. She took a heavy breath and dropped down off the ledge she had been watching from, trying to stay in the shadows as she skirted along the wall behind the fight. She opened fire with the laser rifle on a BOS soldier that was attempting to breach the line of Railroad heavies.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw someone waving to her. Another Railroad operative stood in a doorway off to her side, beckoning her over. She hopped a railing onto a ramp that led up to the doorway, pushing in past the operative. "The packages are further down! Get them outta here!"

She ran past him and into another maze-like set of crypts. She blew out a couple of turret guns, went up a set of stairs and found herself up above the fighting again, then turned and went down another set of stairs that brought her further underground.

When Lilith finally made it to the end of the maze-like tunnels, she found herself in a room with four scared and shaking people. Synths, actually, but it was impossible to tell the difference. They all looked up at her and backed up towards the wall, and she could see the fear and desperation in their eyes.

One woman backed herself up into a corner, holding her hands up in a weak attempt at a defensive posture. "Come on, please…just…just don't…"

Lilith checked her laser rifle quickly, loading in a fresh fusion cell. "Relax! You'll be free to go as soon as the Brotherhood has been dealt with…"

The Courser X4-18 strode into the room just as Lilith said this. He had been just about to congratulate her on locating the rogue synths, but he immediately lifted his own laser rifle and aimed it at his partner.

Before Lilith even realized that X4-18 was in the room with them, she was struck in the shoulder. She let out a surprised cry, recoiled and grabbed her arm, looking down to see a bloody laser burn.

The reason X4-18 had missed and grazed her shoulder instead of potentially melting her face off was because Hancock had followed him all the way underground and tackled him to the floor when he had raised the rifle to shoot her. She saw this now. She forsook the rifle she'd dropped when she had been shot and grabbed the pistol she kept at her hip.

Hancock was wrestling with the Courser, trying to keep the rifle aimed away from himself and the other people in the room. He jammed his knee into the synth's stomach, hoping it would knock the wind out of him like it would a normal person. The Courser barely even flinched at the assault. He twisted the gun they both wrestled with and thrusted upwards with it sharply, catching Hancock on the chin and knocking him back.

Lilith strode up to the two men, raising the pistol and pulling the trigger just as X4-18 sat up. The Courser's head twitched to the side as the hole blown through it started to smoke. Hancock regained himself and raised his shotgun, blowing the synth's head almost all the way off at such close range.

He took a few heavy breaths and looked up at Lilith. "Just to be safe."

She felt like her bottom lip was scraping the dirt on the floor. She couldn't believe he'd found her here. And his timing… "John!? How…?"

Hancock stood up, wincing as he gingerly massaged his chin. "I'm guessin' there ain't a lot of time for explanations right now." He nodded towards the synths. "You here to kill them or help 'em?"

Lilith blinked. "Both technicially, but…" She shook her head, then looked up at him. "I'm going to help them."

Hancock nodded as he loaded a new shell into the sawed off. "Fighting's winding down out there, but there's some stragglers. You should tell 'em to wait here til it's quiet."

Lilith nodded, and turned toward them briefly. "You heard the man. We're going back out there. You need to stay here, lock the door behind us and wait for someone from the Railroad to come. They'll help you."

The woman who had backed herself up into the corner removed herself and followed Lilith and Hancock to the door. Before they could leave she grabbed Lilith and pulled her into a tight hug. "Thank you…"

Lilith grit her teeth at the pain in her shoulder, but she returned the woman's hug, then took a step back through the doorway. "Don't open this door until they come for you."

The woman nodded and pulled the door closed. Lilith let out a heavy sigh and pulled a Stimpak from the utility belt at her waist, injecting it into her shoulder. When she looked up, Hancock's eyes were on her. Those dark, depthless eyes. She swallowed. She didn't know what to say. "John…"

He slung the sawed off over his shoulder and started walking. "Let's go."

Lilith chewed her lip and followed him like a dog with its tail between its legs. They crept back up through the labyrinthine tunnels in an uncomfortable silence; raucous laser blasts and shouting echoed up to them through the halls, and when they stepped out onto the balcony staircase that overlooked the open room where the Railroad had made their stand, Hancock had to pull her back as a rogue shot from the single remaining turret gun bit the wall just beside them.

She clenched the laser pistol in her hand and ran for cover down the stairwell and back into the tunnels, John following close behind. When they reached the room adjacent to where the fighting was still going on, she saw the Railroad operative who had ushered her further in earlier lying dead in the doorway. John immediately stepped in front of her and grabbed the man's hands, dragging him out of their way and off to the side of the room. When he began walking back towards the door, Lilith stepped in front of him and pushed the door closed.

"John, before we go out there, we've gotta talk…"

He stopped in his tracks and narrowed his eyes at her. "You didn't wanna talk three weeks ago at the Castle, but you wanna talk now? In the middle of one of the biggest gunfights I've ever seen!? You really are fuckin crazy, doll, ya know that?"

A hurt look brushed across Lilith's face, but she tried to steel herself and didn't break her gaze from his face. "I know. Maybe I am. But I ran to protect you, John. You shouldn't have come here…"

"I saved your ass back there, sweetheart. You'd be dead if I hadn't come."

She rolled her eyes up toward the ceiling, pressing her back against the door. "And I'll probably be dead before this whole thing is through. But that's not the point, John. The point is that I wanted you to be safe! I didn't want the Institute coming after you! Goodneighbor's low on their radar for the moment, but-"

"Yeah, you know all about the Institute now, don't ya? The only person who's ever been in and come back out again. You're here on their orders? What do they want? What did they do with your kid? They usin' him to blackmail you or somethin'?"

She bit her lip. "It's…complicated. I found Shaun, but he's…he's…" She turned around and put her hand on the door handle. "I'll tell you later, okay? I was sent here to retrieve those synths but I've been working with the Railroad trying to figure out a way to free them instead. I'm…kind of a double agent I guess. But right now we need to focus on getting this area cleared. Okay?" Her voice cracked a little. She had turned around so he wouldn't see the look of pain she couldn't hide at the thought of Shaun. She knew what would have to happen eventually, but she hadn't prepared herself for it yet.

Hancock paused. It was obvious that whatever she had found in the Institute was nowhere close to what she had been expecting. He walked up and contemplated putting a hand on her shoulder, but did not. "Okay. We'll talk about it later."

She nodded and opened the door. The scene outside was grim. BOS soldiers, synths, and Railroad heavies all laid scattered across the floor of the large room, dead or dying. A few survivors continued to take pot shots at each other from opposite sides of the room. Lilith ran out, jumped the walkway, and began opening fire on a synth that was shooting at a surviving Railroad heavy. John began unloading shells on another synth that had entered from above. Lilith and the heavy put down the first synth, then began shooting at the one attacking Hancock.

When that synth went down, Lilith turned toward the heavy. "The packages are still down below and still safe. They've locked the door, and I told them not to open it for anyone who wasn't in the Railroad. When this place is clear, you go down there and get them!"

The heavy nodded at her.

Lilith nodded back, turned and strode toward a staircase at the other side of the room, heading towards the exit. Hancock followed close behind her, reloading the shotgun. "So you're spyin' for the Railroad?"

She glanced at him and nodded. "Yes…I've met synths who are indistinguishable from you or me. They don't deserve to be called anyone's 'property'."

"pretty sure they don't make synths that look like me…"

"You know what I mean. They're self-aware. They're not just things anymore. They feel gratitude, they feel grief, they feel their own confinement…"

"I'm sure Nicky would be swellin' with pride to hear you sayin' that…"

Hancock's long strides had carried him in front of Lilith. As they rounded a corner into an old workshop just near the ladder that would bring them back above ground, Lilith stopped in her tracks as she saw a BOS Knight standing at the foot of the ladder. Hancock was distracted for the moment, his head still turned back towards her as he talked. The BOS Knight quickly raised his rifle when he saw the two, taking aim at Hancock first. "Die, you filthy ghoul scum!"

"John!" Lilith shouldered him to the side and raised her pistol, blasting at the Knight just as he opened fire. John lurched and regained his balance quickly as the dingy room lit up with laser fire. Lilith was unloading round after round into the Knight's Power Armor, the onslaught making his aim jerky and inaccurate; he was obviously a newly-made Knight with little battle experience.

Hancock took this opportunity to rush the Knight from the side, getting as close as he could before he unloaded some shells from the sawed off into the Knight's helmet. The glass on the Knight's visor cracked and the force from the shots made him falter and lose his footing in the heavy suit. Hancock quickly reloaded the shotgun and blasted the rifle out of the Knight's hands. He jumped onto the suit of Power Armor and ripped off the helmet. "You want filthy ghoul scum!? Well you got it, cause I'm fuckin' feral now!" He punched the Knight in the nose several times, stood up, and unloaded the last shell in the gun into the man's head.

Panting, he turned around at a clattering sound as he wiped his face with his sleeve. Lilith's pistol had fallen to the floor, and she was weakly clutching at her stomach. There was blood pooling down her legs from a smoking laser wound in her upper abdomen.

"Lil! Ah shit…" Hancock ran to her side, pressing his hand against the wound to try and staunch some of the blood, easing her down to the ground. "Lil, listen to me, stay awake! Don't close your eyes!"

"John…" She coughed painfully, blood welling up in her mouth.

He rummaged in her utility belt for some Stimpaks, hands trembling. "Keep talkin' to me, love…"

"I'm…tired of saying sorry…but I…" She rasped in a breath, the sound gurgled from the blood welling up her esophagus. "I want you to know…"

Hancock injected her with all of the three Stimpaks he could find, still trying to keep one hand on her belly. "Hey doll, there'll be plenty of time…plenty of time for me to know whatever it is, yeah? You're gonna be fine. Everything's gonna be okay…"

She shook her head weakly, managing a small smile. "I just wanted…you to be safe. It wasn't…safe to be with me…"

"I know, Lil…I know." He removed his hand for a moment to see if the Stimpaks were doing their job of helping her blood to clot. He knew he'd have to try and move her, but he wasn't sure he could do it without causing her to bleed out. "I know ya felt like ya had to do all this on your own, but you didn't. You never had to be alone…"

She coughed weakly again, struggling to keep her eyes open. She grasped his hand that was on her abdomen. "I do…love you, John…that's what I wanted…you to know."

His breath hitched in his chest and it was all he could do not to let out a sob. When her eyes closed, he cradled her as gently as he could in his arms and carried her up the ladder and back out into the wasteland.


End file.
